
Qass h- pO^ 
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NUTS 



Future Historians to Crack. 



Oji^;- ''^-'• 



COLLECTED BY 



HORACE W. SMITH. 



CONTAINING THE 



CADWALADER PAMPHLET, VALLEY FORGE LETTERS 

etc., etc., etc. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

HORACE W. SMITH, 20 SOUTH SIXTH STREET. 

1856. 



t'do& 



INTRODUCTION 



For some years I had been engaged in collecting 
material for a life of my great grandfather, the Hev. 
William Smith, D. D., Provost of the University 
of Pennsylvania, and in doing so, I read all the Biblio- 
gra]ohical and Historical works which I thought could 
in any way make mention of him. In no case did I 
find anything said against his character as a man, until 
I read Wm. B. Peed's Life of his grandfather. Gen. 
Joseph Reed. His remarks were uncalled for and 
imgentlemanJij ; what they were, amount (o nothing, 
as they were untrue ; and therefore not worth repeating. 
My first idea was to speak of Gen. Joseph Reed in 
the same manner, though with more truth ; but find- 
ing the truth had been suppressed, and that to pubhsh 
all I could wish in regard to Reed, would take up 
too much room in my work, and be departing from 
my original design, I therefore, concluded to publish 
all the historical facts in regard to Reed in a small 
volume by itself, and to pubhsh such an edition, that 
it could not be bought up and destroyed. 



I have taken the liberty of using the followino- 
extracts from an article published in the Fireside 
Visitor— by J. M. Church. Whom it was Avritten by I 
do not know, but the writer evidently understood his 
subject. 

" When it was announced that IMr. Irving was 
about to present to the public a life of Washington, 
we hailed the information with feelings of delight", not 
unmingled with gratitude, that the illustrious'' author 
of ' Columbus,' the Sketch Book, and Knickerbocker 
should make the crowning work of his life and literary 
labors, the history of the greatest and purest of 
patriots, so dear to the hearts of all his countrymen, 
and one who, the more time and investigation develop 
and explain his motives and actions, the greater and 
nobler he appears. Our expectations were great when 
we contemplated the vast field that time had laid open 
to the historian ; and though Marshall and Sparks had 
left but Httle to do, we felt there was still enough to 
make Mr. Irving's the greatest history of that greatest 
of men. 

On the appearances of the first volume, a number of 
errors were noticed by the press, which were subse- 
quently corrected. The most important one, that in 
relation to Major Stobo, we are glad to see fully ex- 
plained and corrected in a note at the end of the 
second volume. In the early part of the second 
volume, however, a far graver error occurs, we mean 
Mr. Irving's estimate of the conduct and character of 
Gen. Eeed, and is it mainly the object of this commu 
nication to set that matter in its true li^ht. 



5 

"Who can read without emotion of the trials and 
difficulties that beset Washington throughout the 
whole of his career "? A Congress so corrupt, that 
Livingston writes, ' I am so discouraged by our public 
mismanagement, and the additional load of business 
thrown upon me by the villainy of those who pursue 
nothing but accumulating fortunes, to the ruin of their 
country, that I almost sink under it.' False friends 
and traitors intrigue against him — even Gen. Reed, 
the very man Mr. Irving so delighted to honor, and 
an inmate of his household, writes a letter to Gen. 
Lee, the aspiring rival of Washington, reflecting, with 
harsh severity, on the conduct and character of his 
commander and benefactor. Lee's answer fell into 
the hands of Washington, and was read by him during 
the absence of Reed, who made no attempt at an 
explanation until Lee was taken prisoner. He then 
endeavored to explain the delay, by saying that he had 
been in the meantime endeavoring to get possession 
of his letter, in order that he might show to AYash- 
ington that it contained nothing to call forth the 
violent answer of Gen. Lee, and, ' In the meantime,' 
writes Reed, 'I most solemnly assure you, that you 
would see in it nothing inconsistent with that respect 
and affection which I have, and ever shall bear to 
your person and character.' Who can read this with- 
out being shocked at the falsehood of the man ! 

It was, indeed, fortunate for Reed, that Washington 
never saw that letter. But how could Mr. Irving 
quote a portion of so important a document, while he 
suppressed the material part '? Indeed, we are tempted 
to believe that some other hand had supervised those 
pages, before they were presented to the public. 



We conceive it to be the duty of an impartial his- 
torian to collect facts, and present them to his readers, 
and he is guilty of falsifying history who suppresses 
them. His readers have the same right to all the 
evidence that bears upon important occurrence that he 
has, and though the author may give his views and 
conclusions, the reader is not of necessity compelled to 
agree with him. We for one, must beg leave to differ 
from Mr. Irving in his estimate of Reed's character, 
and we doubt not that every one reading his letter will 
sustain us in our opinion, that his conduct was false 
and treacherous in the extreme. 

In order properly to appreciate the baseness of Reed's 
conduct, it is necessary to consider the circumstances 
under which it occurred. It was immediately after 
Washington had experienced the most trying reverses. 
Fort Washington had just been captured ; over two 
thousand men had been taken prisoners, and his own 
eyes had beheld his men, partners of his toil, bayoneted 
and cut doAvn while they begged for quarter. The 
Jerseys were overrun, and Philadelphia threatened by 
the enemy. Add to this, the accounts he received from 
Congress of the state of affairs at home, and it wanted 
but the discovery of such treachery to crush a spirit less 
mighty than his. 

It appears strange that Mr. Irving should form 
such an undue estimate of Reed's character, nor 
can we believe him to be ignorant of what was his 
real position and standing among his brother officers. 
As early as 1776, when Reed contemplated resigning 
his commission as Adjutant General, the announce- 
ment was hailed with pleasure, for Reed had few 
friends. Col. Trumbull, writing to a member of 



Congress on the subject, says, " I heard Jos. Reed 
had sent his resignation some time ago ; in the name 
of common sense, why is it not accepted '? That 
man's want of abilities in his office had introduced 
the greatest disorders and want of disciphne into the 
army; it ought to originate from that office. Then 
he had done more to raise and keep up a jealousy 
between the New England and other troops, than all 
the men in the army besides. Indeed, his stinlciug 
pride, as General George Clinton expresses it, has gone 
so far, that 1 expect every day to hear he is called to 
account by some officer or other ; indeed, he is uni- 
versally hated and despised, and it is high time he was 
displaced." If Mr. Irving has not seen that letter, we 
refer him to the New York Gazette, of December the 
9th, 1776, or to Mr. Peter Force's American Archives, 
if that work be more accessible to him. 

"We have still another complaint of omission to make 
against Mr. Irving, and we think it too important a 
point in the history of Gen. Reed to be overlooked. 

A few days previous to the battle of Trenton, when 
affairs were most gloomy, and not a single star appeared 
to give the faintest ghmmer of hope. Reed appeared 
despondent : " He felt the game was up, and there was 
no use of following the wretched remains of a broken 
army ; he had a family, and it was but right that he 
should look after their interests ; besides, the time had 
nearly expired during which they could avail them- 
selves of the pardon offered by Gen. Howe to all those 
who should go over to the enemy." Such were the 
lamentations of Gen. Reed, until, in the agony of his 
fears, he communicated them to Gen. Cadwalader. 
The feelings of that high-minded, chivalrous soldier 



8 

can hardly be imagined — his first impulse was to order 
Reed under the arrest, but was deterred for fear of 
the eff'ect the example might have on the men. He, 
however remonstrated witli him, and his arguments 
appeared for the time to restore his composure. 
During the night previous to the battle of Trenton, 
Reed lay concealed in Burlington, in anxious expecta- 
tion of the result of Washington's great master-stroke. 
He had opposed the enterprise in his communi- 
cations Avith Washington, by the most discouraging 
representations, and now anxiously awaited the result. 
His fears Avere worked up to the highest pitch ; and 
the burthen of his conversation was, how he should 
protect himself. He had with him a companion in his 
weakness, and the determination they both came to 
was, to go over to the enemxy early in the morning. 
Before, however, they could execute their intentions, 
the news arived of the victory of the Americans, the 
turning point in our country's fortunes, which gave 
hope to the people and courage to Gen. Reed. 

A few years after these transactions. Reed was 
accused in the public newspapers of having meditated 
a desertion to the enemy. He replied in a pamphlet, 
in which he attempted to defend himself, and addressed 
it to Gen, Cadwalader, whom he conceived to be the 
author of the charges and between whom and himself 
there was some unfriendly feelings, arising out of 
pecuniary transactions between them. Cadwalader 
came out with a crushing *" Reply," in which though 
he denied having pubhshed the statements in the 
newspapers, he yet affirmed the truth of them, and 

* Reed always said that this reply was the joint protection of Benj. Rush, Dr 
"Wra. Smith and Gen. John Cadwalader. 



9 

brought such overwhelming proofs to sustain his 
charges, that the public lost all confidence in Heed, 
and failed to re-elect him to the office he had just 
held. It is not within the limits of an article like 
this to go through Gen. Cadwalader's pamphlet, 
suffice it to say, he was supported by Alexander 
Hamilton, Dickinson, Doct. K,ush, Bradford, and 
numerous others. Among other things, it was proved 
that previous to the battle of Trenton, E,eed had sent 
to Count Dunop, who commanded at Bordentown, to 
ask if he could have a protection for himself and a 
friend. The messenger narrowly escaped being hanged, 
through the intercession of a friend of Count Dunop. 
This is corroborated by an extract from the Diary of 
" Mrs. Maro^aret Morris." 



10 



Extract from a Journal kept by Margaret Morris, 
for tlic amusement and information of her sister 
Mitcah Martha Moore. Her residence at the time, 
was on the " bank" at Burlington, N. J., at the corner 
of Ellis Street. 

"January 4th, 1777, we were told by a woman who 
lodged in the same room where General Reed and 

Colonel C took shelter, when the battle of 

Trenton dispersed the Americans, that they (Reed and 

C ) had laid awake all night considting together 

about the best means of securing themselves, and that 
they came to the determination of setting off next day 
as soon as it was light to the British Camp, and 
joining them with all the men under their command. 
But when the morning came an express arrived with 
an account that the Americans had gained a great 
victory. The English made to flee before the ragged 
American Regiments. This report put the rebel 
General and Colonel in high spirits, and they con- 
cluded to remain firm to the cause of America. They 
paid me a visit, and though in my heart I despised 
them — treated them civilly, and was on the point of 
telling them their conversation the preceding night 
had been conveyed to me on the wings of the wind, 
but on second thought gave it up — though perhaps the 
time may come when they may hear more about it." 

There is still another page in the life of Gen. Reed 
that remains to be told, and that is the attempt 
alleged to have been made by Mrs. Ferguson to bribe 
him. All are familiar with his intensely patriotic 
reply, refusing ten tliousand j^onnds, and the best office 



11 

in the colonies, in his Majesty's gift. To be sure, 
Gov. Johnstone,* in a speech before Parliament, most 
emphatically denied having employed •f^Lvs. Ferguson 
to offer to Gen. Eeed any bribe whatever, while at the 
same time he admits that other means besides persua- 
sion were used. Docs he allude to the pair of elegant 
pistols that Rccd accepted after the attempt to bribe 
him, and with which he was charged in the public 
papers 1 But Mr. Irving has not yet approached this 
delicate subject, and to his able hands we leave it, 
fully conscious he will give it the attention so impor- 
tant a circumstance requires. 

Should he fail, however, to do justice to Gen. Reed 
in this matter, he will pardon us if we again take the 
liberty of addressing him on the subject. 

We have been careful in our strictures upon the 
character and conduct of Gen. Reed to assert nothing 
that unquestionable evidence does not sustain ; and if 
by our remarks we have lowered him from the unde- 
served eminence to which the injudicious zeal of 
interested parties has so industriously labored to 
elevate him, this result must rather be attributed to 
the weakness of the support, and the frailty of the 
statue, than to the vigor of the blows we have be- 
stowed upon it. 

The most we have done has been to remove the 
deceptive varnish, and the idol has fallen to pieces. 

T. S. P. 

* See Gov. Johnstone's speech in the House of Commons, March, 9th, 
1779, to be found in the Philadelphia Library in a volume of the Penn- 
sylvania Packet, February 20th, 1779, No. 384. 

t Mrs. Ferguson's letter will be found in the same volume in the 
Numbers for February 20th, and March 9th. 



12 



Proceedings of a General Court Martial of the line, 
held at Raritan in the State of New Jersey, for the 
trial of Major General Arnold, Published by order of 
Congress, Philadelphia. 

Printed by Francis Bailey in JMarket Street, 1780. 

Extract from the defence of General Arnold. 

" On this occasion I think I may be allowed to say, 
without vanity, that my conduct, from the earliest 
period of the war to the present time, has been steady 
and uniform. I have ever obeyed the calls of my 
country, and stepped forth in her defence, in every 
hour of danger, when many were deserting her cause, 
which appeared desperate. I have often bled in it ; 
the marks that I bear, are sufficient evidence of my 
conduct. The impartial public will judge of my 
services, and whether the returns that I have met with 
are not tinctured with the basest ino-ratitude. Con- 
scions of my own innocence, and the unworthy methods 
taken to injure me, I can with boldness say to my 
persecutors in general, and to ilie cldef of them hi par- 
ticular^ that in the hour of daitger when the affairs of 
America wore a gloomy aspect^ when our illustrious 
general was retreating tlirough New Jersey, with a 
handful of men, I did not propose to my associates 
basely to quit the general, and sacrifice the cause of 
my country to my personal safety, by going over to 
the enemy and making my peace. 

" I can say 1 never basked in the sunshine of my 
general's favour, and courted him to his face, when I 
was at the same time treating him with the greatest 



13 

disrespect, and villifying his character when absent. 
This is more than a I'ldinrj member of the Council of 
PennsijJvania can say^^ as it is alleged and believed. 

The first edition of the Cadwalader Pamphlet was 
published in the year 1782, within the last twenty 
years all the copies, or nearly so, have been spirited 
away — where or by whom no one knows. They have 
been stolen from the public libraries and from the 
book cases of private individuals. In 1818 a second 
edition was issued. The publisher of this edition was 
threatened with prosecution, and although but six 
years have passed, it is now looked upon as a valuable 
curiosity. To the second edition was prefixed the 
following Introduction. 

" A few years since a writer, over the signature of 
" Valley Forge," published in an evening paper of 
Philadelphia, called the " Evening Journal" and put 
forth certain statements connected Avith our revolu- 
tionary history, which caused a great excitement, and 
led to a challenge of an interview with the author, by 
the descendants of a person, whose character was con- 
sidered as involved in doubt, as to his being a patriot 
of 1776. The party challenged failed to attend the 
proposed meeting, and this pamphlet will give a clue 
to the whole writings of " Valley Forge," and justify 
completely the course pursued by the editor of the 

Notes. — " The allusion to the disrespectful treatment of the General 
refers in part, (I fancy) to the letter addressed by General Charles Lee to 
Keed, which came to head quarters and was opened by Washington." — 
See Life of Joseph Eecd. 

"Joseph Reed at the time of the prosecution of Arnold was President 
of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, and as is well known, 
took an active and prominent part against him." — See Spark's Life of 
Arnold, page 140. 



14 

''^Evening Journal ^^^ who is not now of this world, and 
of course a matter immaterial perhaps to his friends 
and relatives. 

The letter of Major Lennox and P. Dickinson refer 
to a person Avhose name is not mentioned, who was in- 
cluded in the application to Count Donop for a pro- 
tection. There certainly must be in the possession of 
some of the descendants of revolutionary families, 
evidence to show who this person was: and it may yet 
be produced, to do justice to the memory of the men 
who figured in those times, 

Trenton, December 2Qth, 1846. 

The Yalley Forge Letters were originally published 
in the Evening Journal, edited by Reuben Whitney, 
Esq., in the year 1842. I have given the printer the 
cuttings from that paper, so that the reader will get 
them in the exact condition in which they appeared, 
perhaps not in the same order. 



A REPLY 



Genl. Joseph Reed's Remarks 



ON A LATE PUBLICATION IN THE 



INDEPENDENT GAZETTEER , 



WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON HIS 

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

i'' 

f 
By General John Cadwalader. 

WITH THE LETTERS OF 

Gen. George Washington, Gen. Alexander Hamilton, Major Dav'id 

Lennox, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Gen. P. Dickinson, 

Gen. Henry Laurens and others. 



PHILADELPHIA : ' ' 

PRINTED AND SOLD BY T. BRADFORD. 

In Front Street, the fourth door below the CofTee-House. 
1783. 



TO THE PUBLIC. 



"When an appeal is made to the public by a person who has inter- 
ested himself in the affairs of America from the beginning of the 
present revolution, he has a claim to their attention, with respect to 
transactions that reflect either upon his political conduct or principles 
as a patriot. 

I wish, most sincerely, that all prejudices in favor or against 
General Reed or myself, may be laid aside on the present occa- 
sion, and that truth and justice may influence the determination 
of the public. 

The world is now in possession of General Reed's address to me, 
relating to a conversation I had with him at Bristol, in the winter of 
1776, and as it contains the grossest reflections upon my character, as 
a man of veracity and a patriot, it is incumbent on me to reply. 

Mankind have been much the same, in every age, with respect to 
their conduct in political life. Their minds have been inflamed by 
the same passions, prejudices, and resentments, and parties have been 
supported by complaints and representations, which naturally grow 
into invective and personal abuse. 

From these principles. General Reed has deduced those argu- 
ments and conclusions, which he vainly affects to think will justify 
him in asserting, that my conduct has been influenced by motives of 
hatred, resentment, and disappointed ambition. But when it shall 
appear, from the testimony I have inserted in the following sheets, 
that the conversation alluded to was spoken of by me in confidence, at 
a time when he asserts that all former personal dislike was removed, 
and that "we united in confidence and danger at the battle of Mon- 
mouth ;" at a time, too, when he admits, that « no party or preju- 
dices existed, (at least as to him,") the premises from which he has 
drawn his conclusions must be removed, and consequently his argu- 
ments fall with them. 

If my bare afiirmative against his negative was the only foundation 
on which the public were to found their judgment, our several charac- 
ters, in the article of veracity, would be fairly weighed by candor, and 

2 



IS 

a verdict given in favour of the preponderating scale. If, then, I had 
hazarded an assertion, without other (the most respectable) testimony 
to support it, the consciousness of my own integrity would have sup- 
pressed any fears with respect to the public opinion. 

The many and hasty movements of my family during the present 
contest, have displaced several valuable papers relating to property as 
well as military affairs. I do not, however, despair of yet finding 
important ones relating to this matter, that may some time hence be 
published. But what need is there of more than I shall here adduce; 
since every prejudiced mind must feel (if not acknowledge) the testi- 
mony too ref^pcctable and powerful to admit of apology or reply. 
Testimony, too, obtained, (in many instances,) from persons to whom 
I am scarcely known, — persons residing in other States, who cannot 
be supposed to be the particular enemies of General Reed, or in any 
way connected with the politics of Pennsylvania. 

Many other certificates, supporting and confirming those I shall 
here oflfer to the public are omitted, as it is thought they will swell 
the publication to an unnecessary size ; and affidavits may, if required, 
be obtained to all the certificates which appear in this pamphlet. 



As the publication signed " Brutus," addressed to General Reed, 
containing certain queries, is referred to, it is thought necessary to 
reprint it. 

To the Printer of the Indcj>endent Gazetteer. 

Sir, — [t is much to the honor of America, that in the present 
revolution, there have not been many instances of defection among 
ofiicers of rank in the Continental army. In Oliver Cromwell's time, 
we frequently see a general fighting one day for the King, another for 
the Parliament ; so unstable and wavering were the opinions of those 
republicans. 

The corruption of the times is now become a universal complaint, 
and one would be almost tempted to believe, that the former days 
were better than these ; that our forefathers were possessed of greater 
moral rectitude than the present generation, did not history and 
experience convince us of the contrary. There is, however, one 
great evil peculiar to this age — that of assuming the credit of being 
endowed with virtues to which we are perfect strangers. Cunning, 
address, and eloquence, have often misled the honest but too credu- 
lous multitude, and they have been taught to consider many a man 
as a patriot and a hero, whose real character was marked with nothing 
but deceit and treachery to his country. It is also amazing, that such 
men should meet with the highest success, and bear their blushing 



19 

honors thick upon them, whilst modest merit and true patriotism 
could neither gain tho suffrages of the people, nor the approbation of 
those who held the reins of government. 

The reflections I am now making have, in a striking manner, been 
verified in this State. I should be extremely sorry to accuse without 
a just foundation, or to adduce a charge, were I not.convinced that it 
is of the utmost importance that the public, — the people at large — 
should be enabled to form a right opinion of such men, who have been 
honoured, or may be honoured with their suffrages, and thereby exalted 
to places of the highest trust and confidence. 

Impressed with this idea, and with a design to elucidate such 
characters, I shall take the liberty to propose to the public the fol- 
lowing queries : 

1. ^yas not General R — d, in December, 1776, (then A 1 

G 1 of the Continental army,) sent by General Washington to 

the commanding officer at Bristol, with orders relative to a general 
attack intended to be made on the enemy's post at Trenton, and those 
below, on the 25th, at night? 

2. Two or three days before the intended attack, did not General 
R — d say, in conversation with the said commanding officer at his 
quarters, that our affairs looked very desperate, and that we were only 
making a sacrifice of ourselvea ? 

3. Did he not also say, that the time of General Howe's proclama- 
tion, offering pardon and protection to persons who should come in 
before the 1st of January, 1777, was nearly expired, and that Gallo- 
way, the Aliens, and others, had gone over, and availed themselves 
of the pardon and protection offered by the said proclamation ? 

4. Did not he. General R — d, at the same time say, that he had 
a family, and ought to take care of them ; and that he did not under- 
stand following the wretched remains of a broken army ? 

5. Did he not likewise say to the said commanding officer, that his 
brother, (then a colonel or lieutenant-colonel of militia,) was at Bur- 
lington with his family, and that he had advised him to remain there, 
and if the enemy took possession of the town, to take a protection 
and swear allegiance? 

It is well for America, that very few general officers have reasoned 
in this manner ; if they had. General Howe would have made an 
easy conquest of the United States. And it is very obvious, that 
officers of high rank, with such sentiments, can have no just preten- 
sions to patriotism or public virtue, and can by no means be worthy 
of any post of honour or place of trust, where the liberties and interest 
of the people are immediately concerned. 

BRUTUS. 

Philadelphia, SejJtemher 3, 1782. 



20 



TO GENERAL JOSEPH EEED. 

In the first part of your late publication, wliicli is no less an invec- 
tive agiiiust me, than it is a defence of yourself, you have, with 
sufficient art, insisted on my remarkably contentious, factious,* and 
jealous spirit, which suflf'ers no man, undisturbed, to enjoy his well- 
earned fame; a circumstance in ray character you expected to derive 
considerable benefit from in the controversy between us. For this 
point being once gained, every suggestion, every article of charge 
against you, which has its foundation and support in me, would 
naturally be referred to those fierce and malignant passions you have 
so unsparingly bestowed on me, and no longer rest upon the general 
credit and reputation I trust I have acquired and maintained. But 
as I cannot, without injustice to myself, make this concession to you, 
I must declare my general tenor of conduct to have been far other- 
wise, — that in my private life I have been at peace and harmony 
with all mankind ; and in my public, at enmity only with such public 
men as have disgraced their country by their vices or injured it by 
their crimes. 

Wherein until the present, except in a single instance, have I drawn 
the public attention by attacks upon the character of any man ? and 
that instance, an impostor, like yourself, who had got into a seat of 
honor. In this, it was virtue to become his accuser. 

If you rely upon yonr instance, as affording a proof of my eager- 
ness for controversy, it will not answer your purpose. I have not 
brought you to the public bar ; for, whatever was the amount of your 
offences, I neither urged nor wished a public inquiry : another has 
brought you there, and I appear only as a witness against you, chal- 
lenged and defied by yourself. 

This being premised, I shall enter upon my subject, and reply to 
such parts of your pamphlet as respect me, and therefore specially 
concern me to notice. 

Your remarks, you say, are with propriety addressed to me ; because 
though not the actual author, it is to me you are really indebted for 
the insidious attempt on your reputation. 

That the public may have the most authentic proofs of the manner 
in which I have been involved in this controversy, I think it neces- 
sary here to insert the original letters that passed in the course of 
our correspondence, last fall, on this subject. 

* Here the following anecdote will afford an occasion of recriminating. When 
Mr. Reed was proposed as a Brigadier in the army, Mr. John Adams, now our 
minister in Holland, openly objected, in Congress, to his appointment, saying he 
was of a factious si)irit, and had been notoriously instrumental in fomenting discords 
between the troops of the different States. 



21 

Sir, — I have, for a long time, treated the anonymous abuse which 
difsgraces our public papers with the contempt it deserves. But in 
Oswald's paper, of last Saturday, are a set of queries, signed Brutus, 
iu which the author, not daring to make an open assertion, has insin- 
uated, that in 1776 I meditated a desertion to the enemy. Though 
my soul rises with indignation at the infamous slander, I should treat 
it with scorn, if it did not seem to deserve some credit from a 
reference to you. Prejudiced, as I know you are, I should be sorry 
to suppose you capable of propagating such a sentiment, or decline 
the opportunity of doing justice to my character, and in some degree 
your own. And this for two reasons : first, the gross falsehood of 
the insinuation; and, secondly, to preserve a consistency in your own 
character, which must suffer from your placing such confidence in me, 
■with respect to the military operations of that period, and permitting 
General Washington to do the same, after such a conversation as 
these queries suppose. I need make no apology, in this case, for 
requesting an immediate answer, — and am, sir, 

Your obedient humble servant, 

JOSEPH HEED. 

Marlcet Street, Sept. 9, 1782. 
Gen. Cadwalader. 

Sir, — In answer to your letter, which I received last evening by 
IMr. Ingersoll, relating to queries published in Mr. Oswald's paper of 
last Saturday, signed Brutus, I can assure yuu, (as I did IMr. Inger- 
soll,) that I am not the author of that publication ; nor have I pub- 
lished one single word, since I came from Maryland, relating to the 
politics of this state; yet my character has, unprovoked, been tra- 
duced by you, or some of your friends. But, sir, I have repeatedly 
mentioned the substance of those queries to individuals immediately 
after the conversation alluded to happened ; and since that time iu 
many mixed companies. As charges of the same nature had some 
time since been made against you, to which you never made a reply, 
the world very justly concluded they were true ; especially as the 
rank and character of the person who made the charge (at that time) 
merited your notice. From this circumstance, it occasioned an addi- 
tional surprise, that you should, in this instance, undertake to 
investigate the matter, and declare in your letter to me, that the 
<< insinuation" was " a gross falsehood." I therefore now assert, that 
in a conversation with you at the time and place mentioned in the 
above publication, signed Brutus, that you expressed the substance, 
and I think the very words, contained in the queries. If my charac- 
ter for veracity wanted credit with the world, one or two other 
gentlemen could be named, who, at nearly the same time, heard 



22 

expressions from you, wliich crcMted in fhom sentiments unfavourable 
to your character. You seem to insinuate that there is an incon- 
sistency in my conduct, because I afterwards reposed a confidence in 
you, and because I permitted Grencral Wasliiugton to do the same. 
It would have been very dangerous, at that critical period, to have 
exposed your weakness and timidity to the militia, as such an 
example might have been attended with the most fatal consequences 
to our cause. And as your conduct, upon this occasion, appeared to 
me to proceed from want of fortitude, and not the baser motives, — 
and as from the observations I made to you at the time, you seemed 
to resume more spirited sentiments in conversation, as well as from 
political motives, I continued to show an appearance of confidence, 
and concluded it best not to mention it to the General. The suc- 
cesses that soon followed gave a happy turn to our aifairs, and thus, 
you, (with many others,) appeared to possess firmness in prosperity 
who had shown a want of it in times of imminent danger. 

If your conduct in civil life had been such as could have been 
approved of, former transactions might have been buried in obliviou. 
But when I see a man endeavouring to injure the reputation of those, 
whose principles and conduct, from the beginning of the contest, have 
been uniformly exerted to obtain those ends intended by the revolu- 
tion ; and when he denies all merit to those who are not equally 
violent with himself, it is difficult to be silent. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

PMlaclelpliia, \<dth Sept., 1782. JOHN CADWALADER. 

General Heed. 

Fliiladclplila, Sept. 10, 1782. 

Str, — After waiting some time, and being just about to set off for 
Bucks, I received your letter of this morning, and am at a loss which 
to admire most, the depravity of your heart, or the weakness of your 
understanding. Your quoting General Arnold's testimony to vindi- 
cate your own fiilsehood is perfectly consistent. You shall hear 
further from me on my return from Bucks. In the mean time, I 
have made inquiry of Messrs. T. Smith and Shippen, whom you 
mentioned to Mr. Ingersoll as hearing from you sentiments similar to 
those in the queries, with a view of communicating them to me; 
which they never did, because they deny the least recollection of any 
such information; which must have been too strking to them, and 
interesting to me, to have passed unnoticed. Your talent for inven- 
tion is also displayed on this occasion most probably. 

Whatever you may suppose, several of my friends well know, that 
I have been anxious to trace some loose reports that I had heard, 



23 

■which your residence in Maryland, and the improhability of your say- 
ing such things, had induced me to neglect. 

As to your insinuation of my writing against you in the news- 
papers, or its being done with my privity, it is equally groundless 
with all the rest. I have not wrote in the newspapers for a long 
time, nor at any time in ray life respecting you. 

I am, sir, your very humble servant, 

General Cadwalader. JOSEPH REED. 

To General Reed. 

SiR^_I shall make no reply, at this time, to the expressions con- 
tained' in your letter of the 10th inst. ; but as you inform me that 
you are on the point of setting off for Bucks, I do not think it incum- 
bent on me to remain here until you return, especially as I informed 
Mr. Ingersoll, that I intended leaving town as soon as the dust was 
laid, anil wished you to take your measures as soon as possible, as I 
should make my arrangements accordingly. Some of my servants 
are gone, and I have every thing packed up ; it will, therefore, be 
very inconvenient to detain my family, as you do not mention when 
you purpose returning. As you say I shall hear from you on your 
return from Bucks, f must inform you, that the post leaves this city 
for the Eastern Shore every Wednesday, at three o'clock ; be pleased 
to direct to me, in Kent County, Maryland, to be left at Stewart's. 
You shall have my answer by the return of the post, or if necessary, 
I shall attend in person for further investigation. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

PhiladelpMa, I2th Sept., 1782. JOHN CADWALADER. 

Sia, Mr. Clymer delivered me your letter of the 12th instant. 

Your sudden departure from this city was indeed unexpected, — your 
declaration to Mr. Ingersoll not implying it to be so very soon ;* and 

•» When Mr. Ingersoll waited on me with General Reed's first letter, 0th of 
September last, I mentioned to him the situation of my family, and the necessity 
of my leaving the city. This has been candidly related by Mr. Ingersoll to Mr. 
Reed, as appears by the following extract from his letter, in answer to mine on the 
17th of March, on this subject. 

Extract from Mr. IngersolVs letter, dated Philadelphia, Sth 3Iarch, 178.S. 

"The conversation that passed, I reported with candour, and I believe with 
precision, but still supposed, that the reply from General Reed would bo founded 
entirely upon your answer. Your declaration, with respect to your intention of 
leaving town, I think I can repeat in nearly the words in which you expressed 
yourself. 

" After discoursing upon the subject of the letter I had put into your hands, 
you mentioned to me that your furniture was packed up to go to Maryland.: that 



2i 

I should have supposed that my letter of the 10th, would have some 
weight to protract your journey. Before I received yours of the 10th, 
I had prepared a small publication, which the receipt of your letter 
did not influence me to alter or delay ; as no signature could change the 
nature of things, and make falsehood truth, or truth falsehood. Hav- 
ing there declared the insinuation in Oswald's paper of the 7th instant 
to be falso, I now apply the same epithet to your avowal of them ; 
and am sorry, though not surprised, that your violence of temper 
should have occasioned such a deviation from the line of veracity so 
essential to the character of a gentleman. 

I am already possessed of sundry authentic documents; a few days 
will complete them, — not to show my innocence, — the improbability 
of your charge, and inconsistency of your own conduct, making that 
unnecessary; but to show to what lengths a rancorous heart, puflfed 
up by sudden and accidental wealth, can push a man of weak judg- 
ment and ungovernable passions. 

I need not give you my address, though I think it incumbent on 
me to assure you, that if by investigation you mean a personal inter- 
view, I will endeavour to make it as convenient as possible, and will 
shorten the distance between us. 

I am, sir, your obedient humble servant, 
Phlladelphm, 2M Sept., 1782. JOSEPH REED. 

General Cadwalader. 

Maryland, oOth Septemher, 1782. 

Sir, — I received yours of the 23d inst. by the post. From the 
style of your first letter, (9th Sept.) in which you required an "imme- 
diate answer," I fully expected an immediate interview. As you 
declined the interview I proposed through Mr. Ingersoll, and left 
town the next morning, without saying when you proposed returning, 
and having determined not to "alter or delay" the "small publica- 
tion," which you " had prepared before the receipt of my first letter," 
— I am at a loss to know what could have occasioned your surprise 
at my departure, before your return from Bucks. After having pro- 
mised to the public the most satisfactory proofs, that no such conver- 
sation as alluded to in the queries ever passed, it was reasonable to 
allow you some time to prepare your " authentic document." Your 
last letter (2od Sept ) informs that they were not then completed. 
And could you reasonably expect that I should have remained in 

you bad been waiting for rnin to lay the dust, and that if anything was to come of 
this business, it must be speedily. 

" I ENDEAVOUR to give the words used, — I certainly do not deviate from the pitr- 
jiovt of what was said." 

This is not the least of the many misrepresentations in which Mr. Reed is con- 
victed in the course of my reply. 



25 

town till this is completed ? or could you suppose I would suffer your 
publication, worked up, as it no doubt will be, with all the cunning 
and misrepresentation you are master of, to pass unanswered ? As 
you have protracted this affair by your eiKjaijcvxcnt to the public, I 
shall not put it in the power oi accident to deprive me of the oppor- 
tunity of laying the facts I am possessed of open to public view. The 
question will then be, whether what I have avowed is true? My 
wealth, judgment, or passions, can have no influence, either way, with 
impartial men. My own character, the character of others concerned, 
and all the circumstances combined, will determine the judgment of 
the public. This business being ended, an interview may reasonably 
be expected. 

[ am, sir, your humble servant. 
Gen. Keed, Philadelphia. JOHN CADWALADER. 

Having for several years given over every expectation of seeing 
those changes made in the constitution of Pennsylvania, which I have 
ever thought necessary to secure that happiness and liberty intended 
by the revolution, I retired, and have never since even expressed my 
sentiments concerning the politics of this state, except among my par- 
ticular friends. Your vexatious administration hath furnished an 
example, to what a dangerous length the authority of government 
may be carried under such a constitution. 

The particular circumstances of my family made it necessary to 
spend a few months in this city, last summer, without an intention of 
taking up my residence here till the conclusion of the war; and though 
I never interfered in politics here, except among my particulr friends, 
I was attacked, in the public papers, by a party blindly devoted to 
you and your measures; I made no reply, from a confidence that such 
intimations could not injure me with those whose good opinion I 
regarded. But whether a friend published the piece signed Brutus, 
in the mere spirit of retaliation, or whether it was calculated for 
political purposes, at the last election, let the author determine. The 
conversation, alluded to in the queries, was known to many long 
before that period; among whom were some of your friends, in proof 
of which I offer Mr. Prior's certificate.* 

* Being called upon by General Cadwalader to recollect the conversation we had 
at the Coffee-IIouse, in the fall of the j'car seventy-eight, when he related what had 
passed between him and ISIr. Reed at Bristol, I remember the subject corroborates 
with those queries I have since seen published in Mr. Oswald's paper, of the 7th of 
Feptember, 1782. I likewise remember giving him a hint, that some of Mr. Reed's 
fiiends were present, on which he repeated what he had related before, and then 
addressed himself to the gentlemen, and informed them, if any of Mr. Reed's 
friends were present, they were at liberty to make what use they pleased of it. 

THOMAS PRYOR. 
Philadelphia, March 8, 1783. 



26 

Having mentioned the eonversixi\on puhlichy, those who heard it were 
certainly at liberty to make what use of it they saw proper. 

Being entrusted with the command of the militia and a New Eng- 
land brigade, which lay at Bristol in December, 1776, I had permis- 
sion from the Commander-in-chief to make an attack on the enemy, 
whenever I thought it could be done with success; I was prepared on 
the evening of the 22d December, to attempt the enemy's post, above 
the Black Horse, with seven hundred men; and about nine or ten 
o'clock, P. M., I I'eceived a letter from the general, requesting, if the 
enterprise was not too far advanced, to lay it aside, as he intended a 
general attack on the enemy's posts in a few days. From this cir- 
cumstance, it appears, that the general gave me the information 
relating to the intended attack, the evening before you received his 
letter of the 23d December, in which the precise time was fixed. As 
he knew my intention to command the party myself, and therefore I 
might not be at Bristol the next day, this will account for his letter, 
of the 23d being directed to you. But here you mean to convey an 
idea that a preference in this communication was intended to you, 
though he had given me, in effect, the same information the evening 
before. This, too, you adduce as a proof of the general's « unbounded 
confidence in you," and you say you were sent by General Washing- 
ton for the '»' express purpose of assisting me;" and ''whatever my 
abilities wore, that I had less experience of actual service than you 
had, — that you were received with cool civility, and very few marks 
of private attention;" though you acknowledge that I, at the same 
time, consulted you without reserve on our "military aifairs." I will 
admit, that your opportunities of acquiring experience were greater 
than mine ; and considering the extensive command I then had, (which 
was in number nearly equal to the force under the immediate command 
of General Washington,) I should have thought it no reflection on my 
abilities; nor would it have hurt my feelings, if an oificer of superior 
abilities and rank had been sent to take the command, — or even an 
inferior officer to assist me. But whether your appointment was of 
the mere motion of the commander-in-chief, or at your instance, (for 
assisting me or other purposes,) may at least become a question. 

That I received you " with cool civility, and very few marks of 
private attention," I do not remember; but to give what you mean 
to convey its full force, I will not hesitate to acknowledge it in its 
fullest extent; as you have granted, that I consulted ''without 
reserve on our military affairs." In this instance, the world will do 
me justice, as it appears that I did not suffer personal dislike to 
interfere with public duty. 

Though the world have little to do with the causes of private ani- 
mosities, I shall think myself perfectly excusable, here to say a few 



27 

words on this subject, as you have assigned causes for the interruption 
of our intimacy different from the true ones, and with a view of 
creating prejudices against me. 

I acknowledge that such intimacy subsisted between us in early 
life, and you malignantly date its " dissolution" at the time of mj' 
sudden accession of fortune as owing thereto. If I were to admit, 
that you could properly date this breach from the moment you men- 
tion, I flatter myself, you would find it very difficult to persuade 
those who know me, to believe that to be the true cause. But this 
was really not the fact. The unworthy measures you took to evade 
the payment, (till compelled by a judgment of the court,) of Mr. 
Porter's order on you in favor of my brother and myself, which you 
had accepted, (to be paid out of a bond assigned by said Porter to 
you in trust,) was the true motive of that dissolution you complain 
of. If you turn to the records of the court, or review the corres- 
pondence with ray brother on that subject, you must blush at such a 
subterfuge. From that time, and owing thereto, I avoided your com- 
pany. I could here make the proper reflections, with respect to yuur 
veracity and integrity, but the world will do you justice. 

The critical situation of our affairs, in the winter of 1776, is well 
known to every inhabitant of the United States ; but those only who 
were at that time in the field, can have a true idea of the circum- 
stances which often threatened the dissolution of the militia. My 
situation gave me better opportunities of knowing the feelings and 
temper of both officers and privates, than any other person; and the 
happy expedients used on several occasions, to prevent their going 
home in a body, are well known to many officers whom I then had 
the honour to command. 

The first intimation we had of the capture of General Lee, was 
received by a flag which arrived at my quarters. To determine 
whether this was a misfortune, or an advantage to the cause of 
America, is at this time immaterial. It was then, however, gene- 
rally thought a matter of great magnitude, in the British as well as 
in the American camp. The effect it had on our army is well 
remembered by those who were present, but particularly on the 
militia. 

That men attached to a cause upon principle, should persevere in 
a prosperous situation of affairs, is not uncommon. We were at that 
time separated from our enemies only by a river, which we expected 
every day might be passable on the ice, — greatly inferior in number 
and discipline, and almost destitute of everything necessary even for 
defence. Add to this, a proclamation of General Howe, ofl'ering 
pardon and protection to those who should submit and swear allegi- 
ance before the first of January, 1777, and this time nearly expired. 



28 

I say, under such circumstances, it would be wonderful indeed, if no 
officer of the army sunk under the apprehension of those dangers that 
threatened him. That there were more than yourself, I well know, 
whose expressions discovered a timidity unworthy an officer and a 
patriot, who, notwithstanding, from the well-timed and spirited 
remonstrances of their friends, were induced to assume a firmer tone 
of behaviour, and have since rendered their country considerable 
services. 

Having fully stated the temper of men's minds at this alarming 
period, and the situation of public affairs, I shall now recite the con- 
versation and circumstances relating thereto, which I have avowed in 
my letter to you of the 10th September, as having passed between us 
at Bristol. 

I had occasion to speak with you a few days before the intended 
attack on the 26th December, 177d, and requested you to retire with 
me to a private room at ray quarters; the business related to intelli- 
gence ; a general conversation, however, soon took place, concerning 
the state of public affairs ; and after running ever a number of 
topics, — in an agony of mind, and despair strongly expressed in your 
countenance and tone of voice, you spoke your apprehensions con- 
cerning the event of the contest, — that our affairs looked very des- 
perate, and we were only making a sacrifice of ourselves ; that the 
time of General Howe's offering pardon and protection to persons 
who should come in before the first of January, 1777, was nearly 
expired ; and that Galloway, the Aliens, and others, had gone over, 
and availed themselves of that pardon and protection, offered by the 
said proclamation; that 3'ou had a family, and ought to take care of 
them, and that you did not understand following the wretched 
remains (or remnants) of a broken army; that your brother (then a 
colonel or lieutenant-colonel of militia, — but you say of the five 
months' men, which is not material,) was then at Burlington, with 
his family ; and that you had advised him to remain there, and if 
the enemy took possession of the town, to take a protection and swear 
allegiance ; and in so doing he would be perfectly justifiable. 

This was the substance, and I think nearly the very words ; but 
that '■^ you did not understand following the loretclied remains (or 
remnants\ of a broken army," I perfectly remember to be the very 
%cords you expressed. 

That our situation was critical, and the dangers that threatened us 
great, were universally acknowledged ; but I was astonished to hear 
such expressions from the Adjutant- General of the army, as your 
conduct had been approved of by report ; for your good behaviour 
was not personally known to me. Judging from appearances, and 
from all circumstances at the time, I imputed these sentiments solely 



29 

to timidity ; and therefore, to rouse your feelings, and give new vigor 
to a mind wealvcned by fear, I recalled to your memory your former 
public professions and conduct, and endeavoured to paint, in the 
strongest colours, the fatal consequences, that would ensue from such 
an example, particularly to the militia; that if officers, (more espe- 
cially one in your station,) discovered a want of Grmncss, we could 
not reasonably expect private soldiers to remain in the field ; and 
added, that as I was commanding officer there, I should not pass over 
such expressions in future ; appearing to be invigorated by these 
remonstrances, your subsequent conversation induced me to hope from 
you a more honourable resolution. The immediate turn in our affairs 
confirmed this hope. I had, besides, at the moment, a still stronger 
dissuasive. I foresaw that an "arrest," or discovery, on my part, 
would produce all the bad effects naturally to be apprehended from 
actual desertion ; I mean with respect to the discouragement which 
such an example would have caused in the army, but particularly in 
the militia; and especially, as at that time the militia were assem- 
bling al. Philadelphia, under General Putnam, from every part of the 
country, influenced by the example of the city troops, as well as by a 
sense of danger and duty. If, then, the city militia had disbanded, 
no person can hesitate to determine what would have been the fate of 
those from the country. 

The reasons of my concealing it from the General were, that nothing 
but an armst, on his part, could have prevented the execution of this 
plan of desertion, and the bad consequences ensuing from it, the 
betraying of secrets; and such arrest would have wrought the other 
ill consequences I have spoken of. In this dilemma, I used a dis- 
cretion which I considered most advantageous to my country; and 
trusted to my hopes, that so important an event, as your defection, 
would not happen, and thus avoid the immediate and certain EVIL. 
And besides, I have, in every stage of the war, shown a disposition 
to overlook political weaknesses, conceiving that every man we could 
retain in the service an acquisition, tending to draw forth the whole 
strength and abilities of my country against the common enemy. 

That the conversation alluded to is a new tale, devised in the 
malignancy of party, has been asserted by you; and on this assertion 
is founded many of your strongest conclusions in favour of your own 
innocence. But what must the world think of your effrontery, when 
they read the following letter of Col. Alexander Hamilton, who was 
then Aid-de-Camp to the Commander-in-chief, and now a delegate in 
Congress; whose conduct and character are well known and approved 
by the citizens of every State in the Union, — a gentleman, who, being 
a resident of the State of New York, cannot be supposed in any 
manner concerned in the politics of Pennsylvania? 



30 

Philadelphia, lith March, 17S3. 

Dear Sir : — Though disagreeable to appear in any manner in a 
personal dispute ; yet I cannot, in justice to you, refuse to comply 
with the request contained in your note. I have delayed answering 
it, to endeavour to recollect, with more precision, the time, place and 
circumstances of the conversation, to which you allude. I cannot, 
however, remember with certainty more than this : that some time 
in the campaign of seventy-seven, at head-quarters in this State, you 
mentioned to me and some other gentlemen of General Washington's 
family, in a confidential way, that at some period in seventy-six, I 
think after the American army crossed the Delaware in its retreat, 
Mr. Eeed had spoken to you in terms of great despondency respecting 
American aflfairs, and had intimated, that he thought it time for 
gentlemen to take care of themselves, and that it was unwise any 
longer to follow the fortunes of a ruined cause, or something of a 
similar import. It runs in my mind, tlat the expressions you 
declared to have been made use of by Mr. Reed were, that he thought 
he ought no longer to '' risk his life and fortunes with the shattered 
remains of a broken army :" but it is the part of candour to observe, 
that I am not able to distinguish with certainty, whether the recol- 
lection I have of these words arises from the strong impression made 
by your declaration at the time, or from having heard them more 
than once repeated within a year past. 

I am, dear sir, with great esteem, your obedient servant, 

A. HAMILTON. 

To General Cadwalader. 

At the time I communicated the contents of Colonel Hamilton's 
certificate to him, in confidence, it appears by your own acknowledg- 
ment, that* "no party or prejudices existed, (at least as to you,") — 
" the intercourse arising from these mingled duties and services, which 
were continued until the army went into winter quarters, at the 
Valley Forge, soon did away the coolness which had for some years 
subsisted, and in no small degree revived our former habits of friend- 
ship;" — " but it was our lot to meet again, a few days before the 
battle of Monmouth ; here we were again united in confidence and 
danger. After the battle, we left the army together, and that period 
closed our friendly intercourse forever." From these, (your expres- 
sions,) you afi'ect to believe, and wish the world to think, that our 
former friendship was restored. It was not so ; I cannot call it 
friendship. The transaction I have mentioned occasioned the disso- 
lution of that intimacy, contracted in early life, which but little 

* See Gen. Reed's Address to the Public, pages 24, 23. 



31 

accorded with my notion of perfect integrity. From that time, and 
owing solely to that cause, I took the resolution to avoid your com- 
pany, as a private gentleman, and which I constantly adhered to. 
Meeting in the army, where we served most of the time in the 
character of volunteers, I did not think it right to suffer former 
dislikes to interrupt the duties and services required of us by the 
commander-in-chief, so necessary for mutual and general safety. If, 
then, my dislike to you did not proceed from such motives as some- 
times induce men to seek for opportunities of gratifying their resent- 
ments, for Avhat purpose could I have invented such a " tale f or if 
my resentment was such as you represent, why did I not gratify it by 
making it public immediately ? at that time, my mind could not have 
been "inflamed by party;" because you admit, that no parties then 
existed, ("at least as to you;") nor could my ambition have been 
disappointed, — because, being commanding officer of the Pennsylvania 
Militia, (the council of safety, who then held the powers of govern- 
ment,) could not gratify me further. I could not have " mistaken a 
conversation with some other person," because there was not that 
"distance of time," which you suppose, nor can it be conceived by 
the most credulous to be " some jocular expression ;" because the 
situation of affairs rather suppressed than excited in you the appear- 
ance of mirth. Having mentioned this conversation long before 
parties were formed here, it must appear to every impartial person, 
that it could not have been the mere invention of my own " brain," 
suggested in the spirit of party; and it is still more absurd to suppose, 
that I could have foreseen that you, who then thought as I did con- 
cerning the essential objections to the constitution of Pennsylvania, 
should refuse the appointment of Chief Justice, because you could 
not, in conscience, take the oath of office ; that Mr. Wharton (the first 
President,) should die; and yet that you should afterwards accept the 
chair of government. It is, however, incontestibly proved, that the con- 
versation alluded to was spoken of by me at an early period, and 
long before your appointment to the chair of government; and yet you 
say, " the prosecution of General Arnold, I have no doubt, gave rise 
to it." If I was to leave it to your ingenuity to explain to the world 
my motives for inventing such a " tale," to what purposes could you 
possibly impute my design ? It could not be to gratify my resent- 
ment for the injury you attempted upon my property; because I did 
not then make it public ; it could not be occasioned by any personal 
offence taken in 1777, (when I privately mentioned it to Colonel 
Hamilton,) because you contend that our "former habits of friend- 
ship" were revived, and acknowledge, that I never made it public for 
several years afterwards. Here, then, the man of humanity may ask 
me, why did you, at so late a date, publicly mention a circumstance 



32 

injurious to General Reed'g reputation, as adjutant-general of tlie 
army and a patriot, which after-services ought to have consigned to 
oblivion ? The question is a natural one, and I will give it an 
answer. The first occasion of my mentioning this matter publicly 
was this : soon after our return to the city, in the year 1778, among 
the victims selected for public examples, there was a young gentleman, 
with whom I had formed an intimacy in early life. I considered 
him, as he was by many, (and his acquittal justified the opinion,) as 
unjustly persecuted ; but General Reed, who had resumed his original 
profession, voluntarUi/ aided the prosecution, and with all the force of 
declamation, labored to inflame his judges and jury against him. It 
was then, recollecting how near he once appeared to the commission 
of the same ofi"ence which he charged upon the other, or at least to a 
defection from the cause, that my indignation broke out at the trial, 
saying to those around me, that " it arijncd the extremity of effrontery 
and baseness, in one man to jyio'sue anutJier to death, for taking a step 
which his own foot had been once raised to tahc !"* This was anterior 
to his elevation to the Presidency, and whilst his powers of doing 
mischief, were he so inclined, were circumscribed b}' the narrowness 
of his sphere of action ; at such a time, could I think his loss of fame 
so essential to the public good, or, if he will, to the purposes of party, 
as to be willing to attempt it, at the expense of my private veracity, 
my honour and conscience. 

The inconsistency of such ostensible conduct, and the baseness of 
a meditated defection, is not irreconcilable to those who have bad 
opportunities of knowing that he is not incapable of such vast ex- 
tremes ; who have seen him at the bar of the assembly he himself 
disqualified by the non-compliance with the test of laws, as since fully 
appears by a publication signed Sidney, unblushingly attempt to set 
aside the famous Chester election, upon the suggestion of its having 
been carried by electors disqualified from the like circumstances. 

It is thus I would have answered the question, why I have men- 

* As a proof of my having made this declaration, and the occasion of it, I offer 
the following letter : 

Dear Sir: — I have, at your request, charged my reeolleetion with -what fell from 
you, in the hearing of myself and several others, at the trial of Mr. William 
Hamilton, on the sulject of Mr. Reed, who assisted the prosecution; it was in 
terms to this effect; that it indicated the extremity of baseness in him, to attempt 
to destroy another for taking the very step he had once lifted his own foot to take. 
This, at the instant, made a deeper impression me, as having never till then, 
though living in the closest intimacy, heanl you drop the most distant hint of any 
intended defection of Mr. Reed, of which I myself had no suspicion. 

Your humble servant, 

mircli 2d, 17S3. GEORGE CLYMER. 

General Cadwaladcr. 



tioned publicly your meditated defection, and I trust that such provo- 
cation merited those reflections which might otherwise have remained 
in my own breast. 

The objection to the force of my single testimony thus obviated, 
did no other offer to corroborate it, I should not hesitate to submit ir, 
under such circumstances, to the judgment of the public, resting their 
determination upon the credit of my veracity against yours. Having 
supported an unblemished character, I dare defy any person to pro- 
duce an instance where I have even been suspected of an untruth, or 
of a base or dishonourable action. Conscious of the truth of what I 
have asserted, I have no fears that my conduct will ever " dishonour 
me with the wise and virtuous." 

The reason I have assigned for the dissolution of our intimacy ante- 
cedent to the war, will afford a better proof of your ingenuity than 
your integrity ; and further, (with respect to your veracity,) if any 
other instance is necessary, let me add one which happened at caniji, 
(at head-quarter?,) in the year 1777, soon after the battle of German- 
town, when in my hearing, and in the presence of three officers of the 
first rank in the army, you was charged to your face with a falsehood, 
and which was fully proved the next day, by the general officer who 
made the charge. 

And now, before I introduce the concurrent testimony in support 
cf my assertion, I shall take but a momentary notice here of thnso 
disrespectful expressions with which you have decorated your pamphlet. 
Weakness of head, is an accusation of a kind which it would equally 
puzzle the fool and the wise to reply to; but against that of badness 
of heart, my known tenor of conduct, in private and public life, must 
be my defence ; if that fails, it must be needless in me to set up any 
other. 

But if even prejudiced men should still doubt the truth of vaj 
assertion, with respect to the conversation alluded to, in the above 
representation, every doubt must be removed upon reading the follow- 
ing certificates. 

HerniHage, 5(h Ocfoher, 1782. 
Dear G-exeral, — In the winter of 1776, after we had crossed the 
Delaware, General Reed, in conversation with me, said that he, and 
several others of my friends, were surprised at seeing me there. I 
told him, I did not understand such a conversation ; that as I had 
engaged in the cause from principle, I was determined to share the 
fate of my country ; to which he made no reply, and the conversation 
ended. As I had the honour of commanding the militia of New Jersey, 
both duty and inclination led me to use every exertion, in support of 
a cause I had engaged in from the purest motives. I was really 

3 



34 

much surprised at General Reed's manner, considering the station he 
then acted in, and his reputation as a patriot; but I considered it as 
the effect of despondency, from the then gloomy prospect of our 
affairs. 

This I mentioned to several of my friends at the time, who all 
viewed it in the same point of light. 

I am, dear General, yours, 

General Cadwalader. P. DICKINSON. 

I do hereby certify, that in December, 1776, while the militia lay 
at Bristol, General Reed, to the best of my recollection and belief, 
upon my inquiring the news, and what he thought of our affairs in 
general, said that appearances were very gloomy and unfavourable ; 
that he was fearful or apprehensive the business was nearly settled, or 
the game almost up, or words to the same effect. That these senti- 
ments appeared to me very extraordinary and dangerous, as I con- 
ceived they would, at that time, have a very bad tendcney, if publicly 
known to be the sentiments of General Reed, who then held an 
appointment in the army of the first consequence. 

FhUadelphia, March 12, 1783. JOHN DIXON. 

A few days before the battle of Trenton, on the 26th of December, 
1776, I rode with Mr. Reed from Bi-istol to Head Quarters near New 
Town. In the course of our ride, our conversation turned upon public 
affairs, when Mr. Reed expressed himself in the manner following. 

He spoke with great respect of the bravery of the British troops, 
and with great contempt of the cowardice of the American, and more 
especially of the New England troops. So great was the terror in- 
spired by the British soldiers into the minds of our men, that he said, 
when a British soldier was brought as a prisoner to our camp, our 
soldiers viewed him at a distance as a superior kind of being. 

Upon my lamenting to him the supposed defection of Mr. Dickinson, 
who it was unjustly said, had deserted his country, he used the fol- 
lowing' words : "Damn him — I wish the devil had him, when he wrote 
the Farmer's letters. He has began an opposition to Great Britain 
which we have not strength to finish." 

Upon my lamenting that a gentleman, of his acquaintance, had 
submitted to the enemy, he said, '' that he had acted properly, and 
that a man who had a family, did right to take that care of them." 

The whole of his conversation upon the subject of our affairs, indi- 
cated a great despair of the American cause. 

Upon my going to Baltimore, to take my seat in Congress, the 
latter end of January, I mentioned the above conversation to my 
brother. I likewise mentioned it to the Hon. John Adams, Esq., 



with whom I then lived in intimacy, a clay or two after his return from 
Boston to Congress. I did not mention it with a view of injuring Mr. 
Reed, for I still respected him, especially as I then believed that the 
victory at Trenton had restored the tone of his mind, and dissipated 
his fears, but to show Mr. Adams an instance of a man possessing 
and exercising military spirit and activity, and yet deficient in political 
fortitude. To which I well remember Mr. Adams replied in the 
following words : '< The powers of the human mind are combined to- 
gether in an infinite variety of ways." 

BENJAMIN RUSH. 
Philadelphia, March 3, 1783. 

I went with Congress to Baltimore, in 177G. On the arrival of 
my brother there, a few weeks afterwards, I called to see him. To 
the best of my recollection, Mr. Clerk and Dr. Witherspoon, delegates 
from New Jersey, were in the room with him. The two former, after 
some time withdrew, and my brother then mentioned the conversation 
as related by him above. He informed me, also, of some other con- 
versation that passed between Mr. Reed and him, which is not neces- 
sary at present to repeat. 

JACOB RUSH. 

Philadelphia, March 3, 1783. 

Joseph Ellis, a Colonel of Militia, in the county of Gloucester, and 
State of New Jersey, doth hereby certify, that upon the retreat of a 
body of militia from before Count Donop, in the neighborhood of Mount 
Holly, in Burlington county, in the month of December, 1776, he 
met with Charles Pettit, Esq., then Secretai-y of the said State, that a 
conversation ensued between them respecting the situation of the 
public dispute at that period ; that Mr. Pettit, in said conversation, 
representing that our affairs were desperate, Col. Ellis endeavoured to 
dissuade him from such an opinion, when Mr. Pettit replied, " What 
hurts me more than all is, my brother-in-law, General Reed, has, (or I 
believe he has,) given up the contest." That a good deal more passed 
between Mr. Pettit and Col. Ellis, during the said cnnversation, but 
omitted here, as being thought unnecessary. 

JOSEPH ELLIS. 

Woodhury, Mai'ch 9, 1783. 

I do certify that I was present at the conversation alluded to above; 
that although I cannot recollect the express words made use of in the 
said conversation, yet such conversation did take place, and that the 
substance of it answers to the certificate of Col. Ellis. 

FRANKLIN DAVENPORT. 

Woodbury, March 9, 1783. 



3G 

Tbose are to certify, that in December, 1776, and January, 1777, 
T, the subscriber, was Major of the second battalion of Phihidelphia 
Militia, whereof John Bayard was Colonel, and then lay at Bristol, 
and part of the time opposite Trenton, on the Pennsylvania side. 
That while we lay at Bristol, Joseph Reed, Esq., joined us ; that 
durino; his being there and near Trenton, he often went out for intcl- 
ligcnce, as Col. Bayard told me, over to Burlington, in which place 
the enemy frequently were; that being absent frequently all day and 
all night, I as frequently inquired what could become of Gen. Keed. 
Col. Bayard often answered me, he feared he had left us and gone 
over to the enemy. One time in particular, being absent two days 
and two nights, if not three nights. Col. Bayard came to me with great 
concern, and said he was fully persuaded Gen. Keed was gone to join 
the enemy and make his peace. I asked him, how he could possibly 
think so of a man, who had taken so early a part, and had acted 
steadily. He replied, he was persuaded it was so ; for he knew the 
General thought it was all over, and that we would not stand against 
the enemy ; and at the same time wept much. I endeavoured all I 
could to drive such notions from him, but he was so fully persuaded 
that he had left us and gone over to the enemy, that arguing about 
the matter was only loss of time; Col. Bayard often making mention, 
that he knew his sentiments much better than I did. After being 
absent two or three nights. Gen. Reed returned, and I never saw more 
joy expressed than was by Col. Bayard; he declared to me, that he 
was glad Gen. Reed was returned, for he was fully convinced in his 
own mind that he was gone over to the enemy. 

WILLIAM BRADFORD. 
Manor of Mor eland j PhiladelpMa County, March 15, 1783. 

Having been called upon by General Cadwalader respecting a 
report which has been propagated concerning Mr. Joseph Reed — I 
declare on my honour, the circumstances are as follows. In the spring 
of 1780, I obtained permission for an interview with my brother at 
Elizabethtown. In the course of conversation, one day, he happened 
to mention that there were men among us, who held the first offices, 
who applied for protection from the British while they lay in New 
Jersey. I was alarmed at this assertion, and insisted on knowing 
who they were ; — he said, that when the British army lay in Jersey, 
in 1776, Count Donop commanded at Bordentown ; that he was often 
at that officer's quarters, and possessed some degree of his confidence; 
that one day, an tnhahitant came irdo their lines, with an aj^plication 
from 3Ir. Joseph Reed, the purport of ivhich was, to know whether he 
could liave protection for himself and his properti/, (there was another 
person included in the ajyplication, whose name it is not necessary 



Oi 

here to mention.) The man was immediately ordered for execution, 
but it was prevented by the interposition of my brother and some 
other persons, who had formerly known him. Perhaps Mr. Reed 
and his friends may say, that Count Donop would not have ordered 
the man executed, had he not thought he came for intelligence. IS'^o 
doubt that officer would have justified his conduct by putting upon 
the footing of a spy, but why was another person included in the 
application, and one who'was not looked on as a trifling character? 
his name I will mention to any one who will apply to me; however, 
my brother said, the man who was sent with the application was a 
poor peasant, and the most unfit person in the world to send for in- 
telligence; this argument was what had weight with Count Donop, 
and which saved his life.* These circumstances being mentioned by 
a brother, and which he declared to be true, naturally produced an 
alteration in my sentiments of Mr. Reed ; for previous to this, there 
were few men of whom I entertained so high an opinion. On my 
return to Philadelphia, I made no secret of what I heard ; indeed, I 
thought it my duty to mention it publicly, that it might prevent 
further power being put into the hands of a man who might make a 
bad use of it. The report circulated daily, and I was often called on 
to mention the circumstances, which I always did, and which I should 
have done to Mr. Reed, had he applied to me. I remember, among 
the number who came to me, was Major Thomas Moore, who said he 
intended to inform Mr. Reed; but whether ha did or not, I cannot 
pretend to say. 

There is another thing I wish to mention. My brother came into 
the river in a flag of truce, on special application of our commissary 
of prisoners, to take a number of prisoners who were exchanged, to 
save us the expense and trouble of sending them by land ; this was 
in the month of May, 1781. He was detained, about nine miles 

* If the countryman was sent, as he insinuated, for intelligence, and not for a 
protection for Mr. Reed and his friend, is it not very extraordinary, in a case of this 
nature, after the man had so narrowly escaped with his life, that no circumstance 
relating to so delicate an affair, (transacted in so private a manner) should ever 
have come to my knowledge, till I heard this testimony from Major Lennox ? 

I will venture to say that no ofEeer of the army, at that critical period, would 
have risked his reputation, though he had afforded no cause to suspect his firmness, 
by instructing a spy to apply fur a protection for him, with a view of gaining intel- 
ligence, without mentioning it to his commanding oCBcer before the transaction. 
But in the instance before us, it is worthy notice, that in so critical a situation of 
public affairs, Mr. Reed, knowing how dangerous such a plea as the messenger had 
used might prove to his reputation, in the hands of the enemy, should not have 
endeavoured to obviate such a tale, by mentioning the circumstance to the command- 
ing officer at Bristol, who might have vouched for his innocence, in case Donop 
should attempt to injure him afterwards. 



38 

below the city, upwards of four weeks, and never permitted to visit 
it, although application was made for that purpose, by several captains 
of vessels, who had been prisoners, and to whom lie had rendered 
civilities. I declined making application myself, as I supposed my 
being in the service from the commencement of the war, and having 
endured a rigorous confinement for eighteen months, in the worst of 
times, to have been sufficient to have obtained permission for a 
brother to have been in my house, in preference to a cabin in a small 
vessel in a river ; — however, I endeavoured to make his situation as 
agreeable as possible, by visiting him often, and by taking my friends 
with me. I remember Col. Francis Nichols went with me one day, 
to whom my brother mentioned Mr. Reed's intended desertion, and 
who, I doubt not, will acknowledge it, on any person's applying to 
him ; he is at present in Virginia, but is expected in town in a few 
days. 

DAVID LENNOX. 

Having been called upon by General Cadwalader, to certify, so far 
as my knowledge extends, as to the matter hereinafter mentioned, I 
do declare, that in the spring of the year 1781, I went with Major 
Lennox, of this city, on board of a flag of truce vessel, then lying in 
the river Delaware, where she had arrived from New York, and heard 
Mr. Robert Lennox, deputy commissary of prisoners under the 
British king, say, that in the year of 1776, a person had arrived at 
Count Donop's quarters, near Bordentowu, in New Jersey, who told 
the Count, that he had been sent to him by Gen. Reed and another 
person, whose name I do not think necessary to mention, to procure 
a protection for them ; that the Count refused to grant them a protec- 
tion in that manner, and was about to treat the person who had 
applied to him as a spy, but was prevented by the entreaties of the 
said Robert Lennox, and some other gentlemen. 

PhilacMplila, 11th March, 1783. FRANCIS NICHOLS. 

Here, then, it fully appears, that the testimony contained in the 
above certificates, ajl point to the same object, and to the same period 
mentioned by me, supporting and confirming each other. They like- 
wise clearly prove the whole progress of your meditated defection ; 
they prove (hat you deceived me by those professions, by which I had 
been induced to trust to your appearances of fidelity, as you absolutely 
made an application for a protection to Count Donop, in which an 
intimate friend of yours was included. 

But what opinion must the world form of your veracity, when you 
are detected in fiilsely asserting, that you had not mentioned such 
sentiments to your most intimate friends and relations. " Is it not 



39 

utterly incredible," you say, " that I should hold such communication 
or seutiments from my most intimate friends and relations, and make 
it to a person with whom I had held no friendship for many years ; 
who had received me with coldness." Mr. Pettit is your relation, 
and Col. Bayard your most intimate friend, with whom, at that time, 
you had the freest intercourse. To these you communicated your 
sentiments, as appears by the certificates of Col. Bradford, Col. 
Ellis, and Mr. Davenport; but your friend, hinted at in Major 
Lennox's certificate, had consented to accompany you in your intended 
desertion. The height of your iniquity does not end here; you en- 
deavoured, by your influence, to spread general disaffection, in order 
to lessen your share of the infamy, by dividing it among many. Had 
you conferred with men whose principles were in every instance like 
your own, you might have succeeded, as every person concerned 
might have carried off his particular friend with him. 

If all the evidence which now appears against you, had been pro- 
duced at that time, what would have been your fate, as you then, 
(being Adjutant- General of the army,) was subject to the Continental 
articles of war ? 

In the 10th page you say, you can << truly declare, that the subject 
of the present slander was not known to you, till its appearance in the 
newspaper." Having mentioned it at the Coffee House, (as appears 
by Mr. Pryor's certifiate,) in the presence of some of your friends, it 
was reasonable to expect they would have informed you of it ; but it 
seems there is some difference between private information and a public 
charge made in the papers. As a gentleman, there can, in my 
opinion, be no difference; as you say, in your letter of the 9th Sept. 
last, that this insinuation seems to deserve some credit from a refer- 
ence to vie. You insinuate, that if you had heard it, you should 
have noticed it. To this, however, the world will give little credit, 
as you made no public or private inquiry respecting the charge made 
in Major Lennox's certificate, though he communicated it to :Major 
Thomas Moore, son of the late President, whose permission I have for 
asserting publicly, that he informed you of what Major Lennox had 
related, the very day he heard it. 

The matters mentioned in Major Lennox's certificate, and m that 
of Col. Nichols reach vastly beyond me; here you absolutely apply for 
protection; and if one report demanded your notice, in referenceto 
my authorities, why not another, more alarming to you, your notice 
in reference to Major Lennox? 

But the consciousness of the communications made to confidential 
friends, and others, suggested the fear of other proofs. As long as it 
was only communicated^ by private information, you were wiUing to 
submit to private censure. But when a charge, which originated 



40 

from ine, was made in the papers, it reduced you to tlie disagreeable 
jilteinative of a tacit confession, or tbc hazard of public proof. And 
in the present instance, if I am rightly informed, you was perfectly 
disposed to treat the publication signed Brutus, with that " silent 
contempt," which, you say, you have for a <' long time observed, with 
respect to the anonymous abuse which disgraces our public papers •" 
but your friends, feeling the weight of the charge, goaded you into so 
unfortunate a measure. « UnJuquj^i/ man! ajainst iclwse peace and 
liapiiiness all are comhined." 

What answer can you make to the weight of testimony here pro- 
duced against you '/ I see nothing left, but to declare to the world, 
ihat the whole is a wicked combination to destroy you ; you may say, 
'• you thought me entitled to the whole infamy of the insinuation," 
till the above mentioned witnesses ''consented to divide it with mej" 
and that, " if you did not sufficiently measure the malignancy of their 
dispositions, or thought more favourably of them than you ought to 
have done, you are content to acknowledge your error, and do full 
justice in this respect hereafter;" and if any person should ask you, 
would all these gentlemen hazard such assertions without foundation? 
you may answer, " it is difficult to resolve what men of ungovernable 
I)assions will or will not say, when their minds are inflamed by party, 
and their breasts burning with disappointed ambition 3" may they not 
have " mistaken a conversation with some other person, or at this 
distil lice of time, converted some jocular expression into such 
suspicions as they have mentioned;" and you may add, " the memo- 
ries uf men may fail ; their minds are subject to the warp of prejudice 
and passion ; they may convert into serious import what was dropped 
iu JEsr; and, from false pride, persist in what they have said, because 
they have said it, even against the conviction of their own con- 
sciences." 

In your letter of the 23d of September last, you say, <' you have 
dei-lared the insinuations in Oswald's paper of the 7th inst. false; 
and you apply the same epithet to my avowal of them." This asser- 
tion has been fully refuted by the concurrent testimony of your 
■Intimate friends and others. In your friends, you thought yourself 
perfectly secure; but the weakness of two of them has betrayed you, 
and the third is proved your accomplice. 

It would, indeed, have appeared somewhat extraordinary, if you 
liad not discovered your intentions to some of your intimate friends 
and ndations; and that "no circumstance should occur to correspond 
with this imputation," after having communicated the same to me. 
Nor are proofs wanting, if they were here necessary, independently of 
those I liave already adduced, with respect to some of your friends, 
who at the time held considerable commands in the militia. 



41 

And <' though specially sent by General Washington," as you say, 
"for the express purpose of assisting me," it may not be here im- 
proper to make a short observation, in Avhich I conceive I shall be 
perfectly justifiable. Though the duties of an Adjutant General 
vrould naturally confine you to the Continental army, yet I can easily 
conceive that there vras no difficulty, by hints thrown out, or by the 
interposition of a friend, to induce the commander-in-chief to permit 
you to come to Bristol, under the j)re(ence of assisting me; being, as 
1/ou represent, well acquainted with the inhabitants of Burlington, 
through whom you might obtain information. But from the evidence 
which appears against you, it will not be thought uncharitable to con- 
clude, that you gonceived your plan could be better executed at Bris- 
tol, than under the eye of General Washington. Besides, you might 
reasonably hope to shake more easily the constancy of untried oflScers 
of militia, than those in the array, whose minds might be supposed 
better fortified against such attacks. 

I am at a loss for words to express my indignation for the attempt 
you made on my integrity; for though I did not see it in that point 
of view at the time, yet the whole testimony, as now collected, fully 
proves such to have been your intention ; and happy I conceive it to 
be for my own honour and the safety of my country, that yon found 
in me that strength of mind, which you might not have experienced 
in some of your particular friends, had they been in my situation. 

The circumstances relating to the letter you wrote Count Donop, 
created at the time no suspicions; nor do I recollect any publication 
which alludes to it. This affair, and that mentioned by Major Lenox, 
are distinct transactions; but it is not more than probable, that at the 
interview you proposed under cover of serving the inhabitants of Bur- 
liugton, you intended to confer with Count Donop upon the subject 
of your own interest and personal safety? This suspicion, in my 
opinion, is perfectly warranted by the indubitable proofs of your 
intended desertion. Another circumstance relating to this affiiir was 
equally unusual and improper. Mr. Daniel Ellis,* by whom you 
sent the letter with a flag, was universally known to be disafi'ected ; 
having been so long in the service you could not be ignorant of those 
obvious reasons, which prove the propriety of sending men with flags, 
whose attachment to the cause is well known, and men of observation. 

Every page, almost, of your publication is full of reflections against 
me, and almost upon every subject ; so intent have you been to injure 
my reputation. The errors I committed during my command may 
serve a double purpose; because he who committed them is subject 
to censure, and he who points them out claims the merit of the dis- 

* I have ample proofs of Mr. Ellis's attachment to the enemy, which may be 
produced, if necessary. 



42 

covery. That I committed errors, I readily admit ; my friends have 
marked some, and subsequent experience discovered others ; but T 
am conscious they proceed from want of experience, not a want of 
integrity. Why, then, need I seek to justify myself, when, from the 
nature of the war, considerable commands were, from necessity, 
entrusted to young officers, there being few amongst us to whom the 
profession was not entirely new. But, I confess, it would give me 
infinite pain, if, by <'a strange inattention of mine to the tide and 
state of the river." and the not arriving " one hour" sooner at Dunk's 
Ferry, we had lost the opportunity of striking a blow at Mount Holly, 
of equal glory with that at Trenton. When you insinuated, in the 
former part of your address, a superior knowledge in military matters, 
by saying you had more "experience," I gave up the point, and left 
you the happiness of thinking so ; for why should I have contended 
a point with a man who, throughout his pamphlet, assumes to him- 
self the merit of all those brilliant successes, so highly commended 
even by our enemies, and which determined the fate of American 
independence. And if I was sensible that the charge you now make 
was true, or could be thought so, by competent judges, I would scorn 
to defend my error. 

My orders were, to make the attack one hour before day, and to 
effect a surprise, if possible. The impropriety, therefore, of sending 
the boats from Bristol to Dunk's Ferry, and marching the troops from 
the same place in open day, is evident, as such a movement must 
have been observed, and commvmicated to the enemy. And now, 
tell me the instance, where even continental troops have arrived at 
the point of attack at the given time? It was General Washington's 
intention to have made his attack on Trenton before day; yet, from 
unavoidable delays, he did not arrive there till after eight o'clock iu 
the morning. We reached Dunk's Ferry a little before low water, 
and can any person believe, that if we had arrived " one hour sooner," 
we could have passed over near twenty-five hundred men, four pieces 
of cannon, ammunition wagons and horses, and all the horses belong- 
ing to officers, in that time, in the night too, and the river full of ice, 
with only five large batteauxs and two or three scows; when it took 
us at least six hours, (a day or two afterwards,) to cross above Bristol, 
in open day and the river almost clear of ice. Strange ''inattention," 
unhappy commander ! That "a single /io?<r, which we might have 
enjoyed with equal convenience and equal risk," should be the only 
obstacle to a scene of equal glory with that of Trenton, and yet you 
have represented to General Washington, as appears by his letter,* 

* Jf'Kennei/'e Ferry, 2oth December, 1776, 6 o'clock, P. M. 
Dear Sir, — Notwithstanding the discouraging accounts I have received from Col. 
Reed, of what might be expected from the operations below, I am determined, as 



43 

dated six o'clock, P. M., 25th December, 177G, to me, heiiig the very 
same niyht, and before we marched to Dunk's Ferry, that you gave 
him the most discouraging accounts of what might be expected from 
our operations below. What, then, were those discouraging accounts? 
Why was I not acquainted with them ? or were they thrown out to 
influence him from making his attempt on Trenton, by representing 
that no co-operation from our quarter could favour his enterprise i* 
In the general's opinion, it is plain, it had that tendency. But in the 
heedless fury of this stroke at me, you have incautiously unguarded 
your most tender part. 

" Anxious to fill up the part of this glorious plan assigned to us," 
you " passed over, you say, with your horse, to see and judge for 
yourself." You did so. <' Having seen the last man re-embarked, 
you proceeded before day to Burlington." Here permit me to correct 
you, because there is no circumstance better ascertained, than that 
many of the men were not brought back till eight o'clock the next 
morning. 

Your motives for going to Burlington that night, were then thought 
a mystery; 'tis now no longer so ; and the ^^ other circumstanrea," 
that permitted you to join us again at Bristol, are now clearly ac- 
counted for. General Washington's success or defeat was, no doubt, 
to determine whether you were to remain a citizen of the United 
States of America, or to be a shameful deserter of your country. 

You say, you went to Philadelphia, at my request, to confer with 
Gen. Putnam ; that you set out in the evening, (the 24lh December,) 
and reached Philadelphia about midnight; but what credit, can you 
reasonably expect, will be given to your " detail of proceedings," in 
other particulars, when you find yourself detected in such gross con- 
tradictions in the following instance ? 

In the 17th page you say, " Upon conference with General Putnam, 
(at Philadelphia,) he represented the state of the militia, the general 
confusion which prevailed, his apprehensions of an insurrection in the 
city in his absence, and many other circumstances, in such strong 
terms, as convinced me, no assistance could be derived from him;" 
and yet, in your letter to me, dated Philadelphia, 25th December, 
1776, 11 o'clock, you say; ."General Putnam has determined to 
cross the river, with as many men as he can collect, which, he says, 
will beabou.t five hundred; he is now mustering them, and endeavour- 
ing to get Proctor's company of artillery to go with them. I wait to 

tbe nigbt is favourable, to cross the river, and make the attack on Trenton in the 
morning. If you can do nothing real, at least create as great a diversion as possible. 
I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 

GEO. AVASHINGTON. 



44 

know wliat success lie meets with, and the progress he makes ; but, 
at all events, I shall be with you this afternoon." 

Here the representation stated in your pamphlet is contradicted by 
a letter in your own handwriting. Having forgot, perhaps, that you 
had written such a letter, your ingenuity furnished materials for a 
plausible narrative, suitable to your purposes ; not suspecting that 
such proof could be adduced in opposition to it. 

Having returned to Bristol about daylight on the 2Gth December, 
with the greater part of the troops, I received an account, about 11 
o'clock, A. M., from a person just arrived from Trenton Ferry, that 
General Washingtctn had succeeded in his attack. I immediately 
despatched a messenger with a line to General Ewing, for information, 
bat all I could learn was, that the victory was ours. 

From the continuance of the rain and wind, I concluded the ice 
must be destroyed in the course of the day, and instantly sent down 
to Dunk's Ferry for the boats. This being an extraordinary service, 
required of men who had been exposed to the storm the whole night, 
was, however, cheerfully undertaken and executed. I then consulted 
Col. Hitchcock, who commanded the New England brigade, to know 
whether his troops would willingly accompany us to New Jersey, as I 
had determined to cross the river in the morning, if practicable, to co- 
operate with General Washington. He informed me, that his troops 
could not march, unless they could be supplied with shoes, stockings 
and breeches ; upon which I instantly wrote to the Council of Safety, 
and obtained seven hundred pairs of each of the above articles, which 
arrived about sunrise on the morning of the 27th December. This 
second attempt being determined on, I went with several officers, in 
the afternoon of the 26th, to fix upon a proper place for crossing the 
river above Bristol, and the next morning before day viewed the 
Jersey Shore in a barge, for the same purpose. By your relation, one 
would imagine you had been the Vfe and soul of this second movement 
across the Delaware, — as little privy to it as the emperor of Morocco, 
• — but it is no unusual thing for you to intercept the praise due to 
others of creditable actions. Instead of being present to confirm my 
proposed movements, by your advice, you remained at Burlington, 
« in a kind of concealment, till the weather and other circumstan- 
ces permitted you to join us at Bristol," after all our resolutions were 
taken, and the most of our arrangements made. In the tissue of your 
representations, it is your purpose to insinuate my deficiency in mili- 
tary conduct in the subsequent transactions. Let my relation of it 
be heard ! 

TVe marched on the 27th, in the morning, and the ice being by this 
time chiefly destroyed, we met with little obstruction in passing. The 
last division of the troops being embarked, and then crossing, we re- 



45 

ceived private information, that General Washington had re-crossed 
the river, and returned to Newtown, in Pennsylvania, from whence 
he dates his letter, 27th December, 1776, informing me of the par- 
ticulars of the action at Trenton, and which was not received, contrary 
to your assertion, till wo had marched above a mile on our way to 
Burlington ; it was then read to the troops, who were halted for this 
purpose. We had, however, before given full credit to the first infor- 
mation of his having re-crossed ; on which previous information I 
called together the field officers, to consult what was then best to be 
done. From this circumstance, Col. Hitchcock, and some others, 
proposed returning to Bristol. I instantly declared my determination 
against it, and recommended an attack upon Mount Holly, as from 
the information we had of the force at that post, we might easily 
carry it, and should then have a retreat open towards Philadelphia, 
if necessary. You then, " as a middle course," advised our going to 
Burlington ; in which those who had at first proposed our return, 
joined in opinion. This was the true cause of that hesitation you 
remarked with respect to me. Burlington was in a position, in my 
judgment, very dangerous ; as in case we should be invested there, 
and the river impassable, we should be forced to submit at discretion, 
for want of provisions, or hazard an action against troops superior in 
discipline, and perhaps in number, if their whole force was collected 
to that point. Having no other retreat open to us, but that over the 
river, it was evident this could not be effected without the loss, at 
least, of those who might be ordered lo cover the retreat. Having 
passed the river in open day, it was probable the enemy might be in- 
formed of it; and, in that case, the post at Mount Holly reinforced. 
To determine whether we should take a position, unanimously ap- 
proved by the council, but which I thought extremely dangerous ; or 
adhere to my own plan, unsupported by a single voice, was certainly 
a question that required more than a momentary consideration, even 
for an officer, at this stage of the war. Being pressed for some reso- 
lution, as the day was far spent, I waived my own opinion, and 
acquiesced in the desire of marching to Burlington; but it is rilicu- 
lous to suppose, as you say, that your brother's intelligence of Count 
Donop's retreat, could have influenced my acquiescence, for it did not 
arrive till after our resolutions were taken, — and besides, was not 
credited ; because if it had reached us before, and been credited, I 
should not have acquiesced in such desire ; if even after, I should 
naturally have taken another course, and pursued the flying enemy, 
instead of going to Burlington, which was five miles in the rear. 

Late that night, I received certain information, that the enemy 
had evacuated all their posts in the neighborhood, and immediately 
despatched a messenger to General Washington with the intelligence; 



46 

in answer to wliicb, I received big orders, very early next morning, 
to pursue and keep up the panic, and that he would cross at Trenton 
that day. From this circumstance, it appears that the General had 
taken his determination before your pretended information or advice 
from Trenton could have reached him. 

In justification to myself, I have thought it necessary to point out 
your false state of facts, in these particulars; the multitude of lesser 
ones, relating to military matters, I shall pass over, as this publica- 
tion is already necessarily lengthened beyond my first intention. 

As I hinted, in my letter of 10th September last, that " charges of 
the same nature had been, some time since, made against you," by 
Arnold ; you say, you " allow full weight to so respectable a con- 
nexion and testimony ;" to which you made no reply, though from 
the rank and character of Arnold at that time, they merited your 
notice. Arnold having received his information from me, it cannot 
be concluded, that I meant by his testimony to strengthen my own 
assertion ; but merely to show, that having before been charged, you 
did not reply ; from which many believed it true. And when he 
apologized to me for inserting it in his defence without my per- 
mission, I remarked, that an apology was unnecessary, from the 
public manner in which I had mentioned it. 

Arnold was commanding ofiicer in this city, very generally visited 
by officers of the army, citizens and strangers. I received the usual 
civilities from him, and returned them; and often met him at the 
tables of gentlemen in the city. To my civilities, at that time, I 
thought him entitled from the signal services he had rendered his 
country ; services infinitely superior to those you so much boast 
of; he stood high, as a military character, even in France, and after 
your prosecution, he was continued in command by Congress ; ap- 
pointed first, by the commander-in-chief, to the command of the left 
wing of the army, and afterwards to that important post of West 
Point, where his treacherous conduct exceeded, I fancy, even your 
own idea of his baseness. To what, then, do your insinuations 
amount ? They cannot criminate me, without an implied censure on 
Congress and the commander-in-chief. But why contaminate my 
name, by connecting it, in this instance, with such a wretch ? when 
you, yourself, at his trial, with a half-shamed face, seemed to apologize 
for being his prosecutor, and became his fulsome panegyrist. It con- 
sisted, however, with that artifice and cunning which has ever been 
the sum of your abilities, and the whole amount of your wisdom. 

Your remarks on my letter of the 10th December, 1777, are so 
inconsistent, that I shall bestow a few observations on them. " So 
strong and virulent," you say, " was my antipathy to the constitu- 
tion, and such my enmity to those who administered it, that you 



47 

believe I would have preferred any government to that of Pcnnsjl- 
vania, if my ^^frso/i and property would have been equally secure;" 
and yet it seems, in the next sentence you say, " but it was our lot 
to meet again, a few days before the battle of Monmouth ; here we 
were again united in covjidence and dangerJ^ If you really thought 
I would prefer any government to that of Pennsylvania, why did you 
then take so much pains to show, that we again united in " confi- 
dence and danger," at the battle of Monmouth, so many months 
after I had discovered that virulent antipathy, and which now hath 
extorted such gross reflections ? 

You say, my breast was burning with disappointed ambition ; but 
how does this appear, when, immediately upon the formation of the 
new government, I was appointed the first of three brigadiers, which 
created me commanding officer of the militia. Could my ambition 
be gratified further ? But to obviate every objection, let me suppose 
you meant, that I wished to rise to power in the civil line, — which, 
however, has never been insinuated before, — let me here call to your 
memory, how easy the task was for any character to rise to the first 
offices of government. I confess, I do not think so meanly of myself, 
as to have dreaded any rivalship from some of the candidates of those 
days; nor do I mean, by this declaration, to insinuate any extraordi- 
nary merit, when I estimate mine by that of those I have alluded to. 
I could not have consented to make the sacrifices required ; but you, 
however, and some others, as much opposed to the essential parts of 
the constitution as I was, freely made them, and broke through 
every obligation of faith and honour. 

The charge you have brought against a party in the state, of an 
opposition to its constitution, deserves some attention. I will digress 
a little from my main subject to examine how far this charge is true, 
and how far the thing is in itself criminal. 

Government is generally so reverenced among men, that those who 
attempt to subvert any system of it whatever, have to contend 
against a very natural prejudice. But this prejudice can only be in 
degree with the antiquity of its establishment j for modern error, 
how high soever its authority, has but little claim to our veneration. 
This concession made, could it be expected that our novel constitu- 
tion, liable at first blush to so many important objections, should not 
have its opponents ; but that in a moment it should be submitted to, 
as implicitly as if it had had the sanction of ages ? What circum- 
stance was there, in the production of this whimsical machine, that 
should silence, at once, all the remonstrances of reason and sense 
against it ? Was it not worth a pause to examine, whether this 
coat, wove for ages, would fit us or our posterity before we put on ; or 
whether this gift of our convention would not prove our destruction ? 



48 

From an apprehension that it wouUl, an opposition was formed, that 
included a majority of the state. Did those who composed it, think 
it criminal to prevent the singular ideas of a convention, from beiug 
carried into execution, against an almost general sentiment; or did 
they not rather conceive it safe and better for the community still to 
go on in the administration of governmental affairs by those tempo- 
rary expedients we had been in the habits of, until their constitution 
could be revised ? 

This idea, patriotic as it was, was defeated by the obstinate 
enthusiasm of some, who trembled for this New Jerusalem of their 
hopes, and by the scandalous desertion of others, and especially 
yourself. The ends of oppo.sition being thus rendered unattainable, 
but at the hazard of convulsions, that might endanger the great 
American cause, the same virtue that began it, ended it, and it h;is 
long since ceased to act. 

This is a well-known state of facts ; but what it did not suit vrith 
your own by-purposes to admit, could not be expected from yuir 
integrity ; you have, therefore, constantly kept up the alarm of a 
constitutional opposition, and, on every occasion, referred to this 
false cause, that honest and useful opposition which was created by 
your weak, though violent and tyrannical administration. 

That you was called to the chair of government, by the unanimous 
vote of council and assembly, you have often boasted, with a view of 
conveying to the world an idea, that even the gentlemen opposed to 
the constitution approved the choice. But they neither esteemed 
you as a gentleman, nor approved your public conduct. They knew 
there was a majority in assembly in favour of your election, and as 
their grand object was the obtaining a resolution of that body, 
recommending the calling a convention for revising the constitution, 
some of the party entered into an engagement for this purpose, and 
your election was negotiated. You were to use your endeavours to 
prevail on the Council to enforce the recommendation of the assembly 
by a similar resolution. From your own acknowledgment at the 
City Tavern, the resolution of the Council was never obtained, or 
even moved for, by you, and for this flimsy reason, that no forniiil 
information, of such resolution having passed, had been communi- 
cated to you; though known to all the world; and that it could not 
be expected that Council would « tag" after the assembly, in a 
measure relating to the public. Yet you had the effrontery to assert, 
that '^ every engagement on your part," was strictly performed. 

At this meeting, you say, you " in the most open manner called 
upon us, to support our imputations, and that you so effectually vin- 
dicated every part of your conduct, that every gentleman, (myself 
excepted,) acknowledged his mistake." 1 own I made no con- 



49 

cessions, and if the reasons I then gave are not thought a sufficient 
justification to the world, of the opinion I had formed, I am content 
to admit that it was not only " singular," but "absurd." 

After a reasonable pause, I remarked, that from the repeated con- 
versations I had had with you, on this subject, you appeared to me 
as much opposed as I was, to the constitution, before the evacuation 
of the city ; that you had refused to accept the appointment of Chief 
Justice, (because you could not in conscience take the oath ;*) that a 

* The following extracts from General Reed's letter to his Excellency the 
President and the Honorable the Executive Council of the State of Pennsylvania, 
dated Philadelphia, 22d July, 1777, assigning his reasons for not accepting the 
office of Chief Justice, may serve to prove his opinions of the constitution at that 
time. "If there is any radical weakness of authority proceeding from the Con- 
stitution ; if in any respects it opposes the genius, temper or habits of the governed, 
I fear, unless a remedy can he jjrovided, in less than seven years, (/overnment will sink 
in a spiritless langour, or expire in a sudden coNvULsioy. It would be foreign to 
my present purpose to suggest any of those alterations, which, in my apiprehension 
are necessary to enable the constitution to support itself with dignity and efficiency, 
and its friends with security. That some are necessary I cannot entertain the least 
doubt. With this sentiment, I feel an insuperable difficulty to enter into an en- 
gagement of the most solemn nature, leading to the support and confirmation of an 
entire system of government, which I cannot wholly approve." Again, " the 
dispensation from this engagement,t first allowed to several members of the 
Assembly, and afterwards to the militia officers, has added to my difficulties, as I 
cannot reconcile it to my ideas of propriety, the members of the same state being 
under different obligations to support and enforce its authority." But he adds, 
"If the sense of the people who have the right of decision, leads to some altera- 
tions, I firmly believe it will conduce to our happiness and security ; if otherwise, 
I shall esteem it my duty, not only to acquiesce, but to support as far as lays in 
my power, a form of government confirmed and sanctified by the voice of the 
people." Here, then, he says, " he feels an insujieralle difficulty to enter into an 
engagement of the most solemn nature, leading to the support and confirmation of an 
entire system of government, which he cannot wholly approve ; but he shall 
think it his duty to acquiesce, and support the government, — if confirmed and 
sanctified by the voice of the people." How inconsistent, then, must his conduct 
appear, when it is notorious, that he took a decided part in support of government, 
accepted of his seat in Council, and afterwards the Presidency, long before the 
sense of the people was expressd by ih& fabricated instructions to the members of 
Assembly, requiring them to rescind the resolution for calling a convention for the 
purpose of revising the constitution. And yet he says, in the 27th page of his 
pamphlet, he " so effectually vindicated every part of his conduct, that every 
gentleman present, (myself excepted,) acknowledged his mistake." 

These were the ostensible reasons for not accepting the Chief Justiceship, and 

■j" By the " dispensation from this engagement,'' above mentioned, is meant, that 
the oath prescribed by the constitution was dispensed icith, and many members of 
Assembly u ere permitted to take another oath, in which they were not bound to sup 
port the constitution. 

4 



50 

short time before the election, in 1778, you engaged yourself to the 
constitutional party, to serve in Council for the County, and to the 
party in the opposition, to serve in Assembly for the City; and 
being chosen in both instances, you hesitated above six weeks, (though 
often pressed to a resolution,) before you determined to accept your 
seat in Council ; — depriving, during this time, the City of a vote in 
Assembly, while an important point was debated concerning the con- 
tested Chester election ; and voluntarily advocating the question in 
favor of the constitutional party ; that on the fate of this trial depend- 
ed your hopes of succeeding to the President's chair ; that a determi- 
nation in favour of that party gave them a decided majority, and that 
you instantly accepted your seat in Council. — To which you replied, 
and in recapitulating my arguments, endeavoured to justify your 
conduct; but conscious of having fiiiled in the capital points, you 
closed your remarks with some warm expressions, which conveyed the 
idea of a threat; of which I desired an explanation. After working 
up your passions to a degree little short of frenzy, you expressed your- 
self in the following terms : I mean this, — " If the publications tra- 
ducing my public and private character are continued, I mean to apply 
to the law; but if this will not do me that justice, which in some 
instances it cannot do, — I know I have the affections and command of 
the fighting men of this state ; and if necessary, I will make use of 
that influence, and call forth that force, — and if bloodshed should be 
the consequence be it on your own heads." 

Such violent and unwarrantable expressions from the first magistrate 

taking the oath of office ; but an oath of another kind, no doubt, induced him to 
decline this appointment. He had not taken the oath of allegiance which the law, 
(passed the 13th June, 1777,) required of every male white inhabitant; nor did he 
take it, as appears by the publication signed Sidney, in the Pennsylvania Journal, 
No. 1565, 12th February, 1783,) till the 9th of October, 1778, which was the 
very day he was elected a Councillor for the County of Philadelphia. And though 
disfranchised of all the rights of citizenship, and incapable of being elected into, 
or serving in any office, place, or trust, in this commonwealth, Mr. Reed dared to 
disregard the voice of the people, and violate the law, by accepting the Presidency, 
and exercising the powers of government annexed to that office. If he had taken 
the oath of allegiance, agreeable to law, why did he take it again, on the day he 
was elected a councillor ? as the mere oath of office only, upon that occasion, 
would have been required of him. 

As Mr. Reed has not touched this point in his pamphlet, or furnished his 
friends with a single argument to defend him, against a charge supported by au- 
thentic proofs from public records, the public have very justly pronounced him 
guilty. If certificates can be produced of his oaths of abjuration and allegiance, 
agreeable to law, why have they not been published? If he is not defranchised 
of the rights of citizenship, why was his vote refused at the last election ? or is 
this one of the subjects reserved for " lef/cd examination ?" and if so, why does he 
not suspend the public opinion by such information ? 



51 

of tlie state, and in tlie presence of the whole bench of justices, created 
the highest indignation, and were severely reprobated by several 
gentlemen present; which induced you afterwards to endeavour to 
soften your expressions and meaning. 

But if it was singular or absurd, " to expect a President of the 
State to enter into the violence of party on my side of the question," 
let me oppose to this, the treachery of your conduct in deserting the 
party to which you was at first from (" conscientious" principles) 
attached, and yet, as President, enter into all the violence of party on 
the other side of the question 

Again, << upon our return to Philadelphia," you say, "I became 
the open and avowed patron of those who are distinguished by tlie 
appellation of tories ; and my decisive attachment to the British 
Army,* and their adherents, " has marked every subsequent period 
of my life, too plainly to admit of doubt or denial." If you really 
entertained such sentiments, why did you, in the month of February, 
(after my marriage,) waiving the indignity olfered to you in not paying 

* That this opinion was not entertained by Congress, may reasonably be inferred 
from the following letter : 

" PhiladelpJi ia, I2th September, 177S. 

"Sir, — His excellency, General Washington, having recommended to Congress 
the appointment of a General of horse, the House took that subject under con- 
sideration the 10th instant, when you were unanimously elected Brigadier and 
commander of the cavalry in the service of the United States. 

" From the general view above mentioned, you will perceive, sir, the earnesi 
desire of the house, that you will accept a commission, and enter as early as your 
convenience will admit of, upon the duties of the office; and I flatter myself with 
hopes of congratulating you in a few days upon this occasion. 

"I have the honour to be, with particular regard and esteem, sir, your most 
humble servant, HENRY LAURENS, 

" The Hon. Brigadier-General Cadwalader. " President of Congress," 

But not wishing to have it suggested, that I entered into the service at so late a 
period of the war for the sake of rank, as the French treat}' had taken place, and 
I had conceived all offensive operations at an end, I declined the appointment in 
these terms. 

Manjland, \'itli September, 177S. 

StR, — I have the highest sense of the honour confei-red upon me by Congress, in 
appointing me a Brigadier in the Continental service, with the command of the 
cavalry, more particularly as the voice of Congress was unanimous. 

I cannot consent to enter into the service at this time, as the war appears to me 
to be near the close. But should any misfortune give an unhappy turn to our 
affairs, I shall immediately apply to Congress for a command in the armj-. 

I have the honour to be, with the greatest regard and esteem, your excellency's 
most obedient humble servant, JOHN CADWALADER. 

His Excellency Henry Laurens, Esq., President of Congress. 



52 

the usual compliments of congratulation, upon your appointment, pay 
me the first visit, and thereby make advances towards a reconciliation ? 
Such a condescension, so contrar}' to the usual forms, can scarcely be 
reconciled even to a character like yours. 

Men who acquire popularity by means disgraceful to a gentleman, 
dare not hazard a sentiment that is not approved by the party with 
which he is connected. I have, on all occasions, and in all companies, 
private and public, delivered freely my political opinions ; nor has the 
dread of losing the little popularity I possessed in Pennsylvania, ever 
induced me to make a sacrifice of my honour, by adopting opinions or 
measures which I disapproved, or thought injurious to my country. 
Esteeming it the highest honour to deserve the approbation of my 
fellow-citizens, 1 have ever been solicitous to obtain it. You and some 
others have industriously propagated reports for the purpose of in- 
juring my reputation ; but conscious that my political opinions and 
conduct will stand the test, upon the nicest scrutiny, and having 
never experienced any diminution of that esteem, respect and warmth 
of friendship, which my fellow-citizens have ever shown towards me, 
a refutation of such calumny is utterly needless. 

From the whole of what I have here laid before the public, sup- 
ported by the testimony of the most respectable witnesses, the follow- 
ing conclusions may fairly be deduced : 

1. That the conversation alluded to, which I have asserted to have 
passed between us at Bristol, was mentioned by me in confidence to 
Col. Hamilton and some others of General Washington's family, in 
the year 1777; and therefore could not have originated at the time, 
you mention, or to gratify my resentment against you, as at that time, 
you acknowledge, no parties subsisted. 

2. It could not have been invented to gratify my resentment for the 
attempt you made to evade the payment of Mr. Porter's order ; 
because I did not make it public at the time, nor till several years 
afterwards, and you acknowledge, all that coolness was done away, 
and our former habits of friendship restored. 

As is appears, by Mr. Clymer's testimony, that I mentioned it 
publicly at Mr. Hamilton's trial, which was before you were elected 
President of the state, it ought to be imputed to another cause than 
that which you have assigned. 

4. As it appears, from Mr. Pryor's testimony, that I mentioned it 
at the Coffee House, in the hearing of some of your friends, we may 
reasonably conclude you were informed of it j and this conclusion is 
strengthened by your passing over unnoticed, the information con- 
tained in Major Lennox's testimony, which was related to you by 
Major Thomas Moore. 

5. It cannot appear improbable that you should have held this 



53 

conversation with me, as your expressions to Gen. Dickinson, Col. 
Nixon, and Doctor Rush, convey sentiments equally injurious to 
your reputation as a patriot and Adjutant General of the army. 

6. As it fully appears, by the testimony of Col. Ellis and Mr. 
Davenport, and that of Col. Bradford, that you had communicated 
such sentiments to your brother-in-law, Mr. Pettit, and to Col. 
Bayard, contrary to your declaration, we may with propriety assert 
that you have forfeited that veracity, which is essential to the 
character of a gentleman. 

Lastly, from the testimony of Major Lennox and Col. Nichols, it 
appears that you absolutly applied to Count Donop for protection, 
and that a particular and intimate friend of yours was included in it ; 
and therefore, from this and the foregoing testimony, all pointing to 
the same object and to the same period, supporting and confirming 
each other, it cannot leave the least room to doubt the truth of my 
assertion. 

In some instances, a man's general good conduct has had great 
weight to invalidate or weaken charges highly criminal ; but un- 
fortunately, yours can receive no aid from .such circumstances. Dis- 
simulation and cunning have for a time deceived the most discerning, 
but the snares you have laid for others will most probably accomplish 
your own destruction. 

Having long since known how to estimate your character, I have 
not any where pretended, in this performance, to fix it at a higher 
value than what it generally passes current for ; you have, since the 
term of your administration, repeatedly put yourself upon your 
country. Your name has been offered to the people for a seat in the 
legislature ; to the legislature, for a seat in Congress ; to Congress, 
for posts of Continental trust; but that name, its counterfeit gilding 
at length rubbed off, and the native colour of the contexture exposed, 
has depreciated, like the Continental money, with such velocity, that 
though a few years ago worth a President's chair, it would not, now 
purchase a constable's staff; nor is it more highly rated in the 
sphere of polite life, than iu the great theatre of the world ; for its 
unfortunate owner stands alone, unnoticed in the midst of company, 
with full leisure to reflect on the sensible effects of the loss of 
reputation. 

IMy immediate purpose requires nothing further from me ; but 
your administration, the theme of your own solitary praise, might 
not improperly have been touched upon, but that it is a field too 
extensive for me, and that I have not asperity enough in my nature 
to do justice to the subject. I will yet observe upon some matters 
in your pamphlet, not in direct connexion with one or the other 
subject; but which are extremly demonstrative of a temper in the 



54 

writer to wish evil to the community, after the power of doing it has 
ceased. 

You, who have ever been a rapacious lawyer, and have never 
omitted any means of amassing a fortune, have, with a truly consis- 
tent spirit, shown an implacable enmity to all those who are raised 
to a condition above want and dependence. And though you kick 
against the parallel drawn between you and the Cataline of antiquity, 
you have in this point proved its exactness ; he haranguing in the 
circle of his conspirators, exasperates them against the opulent 
citizens ot Rome; you, in your pamphlet, labor to create invidious 
distinctions, would pervert the order of well regulated society, and 
make fortune's larger gifts, or even its moderate blessings, criterions 
of disqualification for public trust and honours in Pennsylvania ; and 
under a spacious description of men, offer with your sioord to lead 
the indigent, the bankrupt, and the desperate, into all the authority 
of government. But in the shallowness of your understanding, you 
have mistaken the spirit of the times ; it will not countenance or 
support a Cataline, 

You would also, no doubt, as Eiay be inferred from your pamphlet, 
you, who are so deficient in morality, draw your sword in religious 
quarrels, to bring you once more into play; but 'tis to no purpose 
you would raise an alarm, as a very great and respectable part of 
your opponents consist of persons belonging to that society, of which 
you profess yourself to be a member; and there is a general and 
commendable coolness and indifference for such quarrels, that will 
not easily take fire on your false and inflammatory suggestions ; so 
that whatever you have catched at to raise you from the earth, has 
broke in your hands and brought you again to the ground. 

JOIL\ CADWALADER. 



YALLEY FORGE LETTERS, 



PUBLISHED IN THE EVENING JOURNAL, 



184.2. 



From the Evening Journal. 

Mr. Whitney — At this distant day from the American Revolu- 
tion, a new dawn seems to be breaking upon the darkness of that 
period, and much that has heretofore been shrouded in seemingly 
inscrutable mystery, is beginning to be made plain even to the naked 
vision. The '< seventeen trunks" of revolutionary papers, a selection 
from which Colonel Beekman, the grandson and heir of Gen. George 
Clinton, has just published, in one of the New York papers, must 
necessarily contain much of exceeding value : and I should not be 
surprised if the Colonel were to receive a visit, at his place on Long 
Island, from Mr, William Bradford Eeed, to request to be permitted 
to rummage their contents, and abstract or destroy any <' document" 
that might likely prove prejudicial to the fame of his grandfather, the 
late General Joseph Reed. The Colonel must keep a sharp look out 
for Mr. Reed, and turn a deaf ear to his blandishments, when he 
arrives. 

Doctor Johnson, in one of his Lives of the Poets, makes an obser- 
vation strictly applicable to the claim of patriotism, which, originally 
set up for himself by General Reed, has been perpetuated for him by 
his descendants. Speaking of the boast a certain poet was accustomed 
to make, of the sternness with which he had driven back an ass laden 
with gold, that had sought to invade the citadel of his integrity, the 
Doctor remarked, ^' but the tale has too little evidence to deserve a 
disquisition ] large offers and sturdt/ rejections are among the most 
common topics of falsehood." That portion of the quotation which I 
have italicised, fits the case of General Reed to a hair; but <' the 
tale" of his patriotism, however " little evidence" there may to sup- 
port it, does <■'■ deserve a disquisition," if only on account of the 
pertinacity with which it is endeavoured to engraft it upon the public 
mind. 

I have already given the truth concerning General Reed's famous 
reply to the British commissioners, and I propose to follow it up with 
the publication of a few letters, interesting on account of the light 
which they shed upon our revolutionary history. 

Many of the citizens of Philadelphia must remember Mrs. Sarah 
Kemp, who died in Race street, in 1820, at the advanced age of eighty- 
four years. Andrew Kemp, the only son of this respectable matron. 



58 

entered the American army, almost at the very commencenieut of the 
struggle, and before, as his mother has often informed me, he had 
reached his majority. As he shall be my first witness against 
Cieneral llced, it is proper to make the reader well acquainted with 
him. His gallantry, and a personal service which he had the good 
fortune to render to one of General Washingston's immediate staff, 
soon promoted him from the ranks, and he fought with great bravery, 
at the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Brandy wine, 
Gcrmantown and Monmouth. Sergeant Kemp was one of the garri- 
son of Fort Mercer, under the command of Colonel Greene, when 
that fortress was assailed in the autumn of 1777, by the Hessian troops, 
commanded by Colonel Donop. In this affair, which, though not one 
of the most remarkable, was one of the most brilliant of the llevolu- 
tion. Sergeant Kemp particularly distinguished himself, and was 
wounded slightly in the arm, and severely in the left thigh by a 
musket ball : at the subsequent capture of Fort Mercer by Cornwallis, 
Kemp was one of the few who fell into the hands of the enemy — the 
remainder of the garrison succeeding in safely evacuating the fort. 
In a few weeks, he managed to effect his escape from Howe's winter 
quarters at Philadelphia, and immediately joined the American army 
at Valley Forge. The privations of that encampment, dreadfully 
aggravated the sufferings of poor Kemp; but, after languishing 
during the season in one of the military hospitals, he resumed active 
service in the spring, and served in May under Lafayette at the affair 
of Barren Hill. At the battle of Monmouth, he fought with his 
usual intrepidity, but the fatigues of the engagement renewed the 
affection of his imperfectly healed leg ; and, about three weeks after, 
he was obliged to submit to its amputation. Upon leaving the army, 
he received from General Washington himself a certificate of conduct 
and character, which I copy from the original before me. 

Head Quarters, June 23, 1778. 

Sergeant Andrew Kemp is personally known to me as a brave and 
faithful soldier, who has served in several engagements, and who 
desires his discharge only in consequence of the loss of a limb, which 
unfits him for further service. His dutiful conduct is reported to me 
to be equal to his bravery ; and he retires from the army with my 
good opinion and that of all whom I have heard speak of him. 

(Signed,) G. WASHINGTON. 

From among other testimonials to Mr. Kemp's worth and conduct, 
which formed to her dying day, the pride and solace of his aged 
mother, I select the following, given by Col. Samuel Smith, the late 



59 

Mayor of Baltimore, and the gallaut defender of Fort Mifflin against 
the six days' attacks of the British. 

" Andrew Kemp has served with me three times ; the last nearly 
four mouths. lie was discharged from the army last month, in cou- 
pcquenee of the loss of his leg and other bodily inlirmitics. 1 have 
always found his conduct exemplary. He came to me with high 
recommendations from officers whom he had previously served with, 
and fully realized what they had prepared me to expect from him. 

(Signed,) SAMUEL SMITH. 

September 3, 1778." 

This brave fellow fell a victim to his benevolent daring, during the 
prevalence of the yellow fever in this city, in 1798. Upon the death 
of his mother, the certificates of character which I have transcribed, 
and a number of his letters, of various dates, written while he was in 
the arm}', passed into the hands of the veteran, to whom in my former 
article, I referred, but whose name I am not yet at liberty to mention. 
From among them, I make two selections — the first a letter to his 
mother, who then resided in Chester County. 

Camp, June \oth, 1788. 

My Dear Mother, — You must bo very uneasy not hearing from me 
so long, and the only wonder is that I am alive to give any account 
of myself. After my escape from Philadelphia, last November, I 
wrote to you, but whether you received my letter or not I cannot tell, 
for I have never heard a word of you since. We have had a dreadful 
time of it through the winter at Valley Forge. Sometimes for a week 
at a time with nothing but frozen potatoes, and even worse oif still 
for clothing ; sometimes the men obliged to sleep by turns for want 
of blankets to cover the whole, and the rest keeping watch by the 
fires. There is hardly a man whose feet have not been frost bitten. 
I have been laid by nearly the whole time on account of my leg, from 
which I sufiered very much ; and Doctor Lc Brean insisted upon 
taking it off, but I would not suffer him; for which I have great 
reason to be joyful, for it is now nearly as well as' ever, except a little 
stifTness, particularly after marching. But our distress from want of 
food and comfortable raiment, was nothing compared to the grumbling 
of some of the men, and I am sorry to say, of some of the othcers. I 
really thought we should have a meeting once or twice ; but we 
weathered through without it. Some hard things are said since about 
some of the officers, but the whole talk of the army is now about 
General Heed. There have been a good many attempts to conceal it 
from the men, but it has pretty much leaked out. This spring, it 
seems, King George sent over some Commissioners, as they call them, 



60 

to endeavour to make a peace with us ; and it turns out that General 
Reed has been in secret correspondence with them all the time, and 
was offered large amounts to play into their hands; but the bargain 
was broken off by his wanting more than they were willing to give. 
I know this much for certain ; that one of their letters was taken to 
General Washington, and that the men were all called up at the dead 
of night, by beat of drum, and most of the officers called to Head 
Quarters. In the morning, General Reed was placed under guard, 
but released in about two hours. The letter was from one of the 
British Commissioners, in answer to one of his — he gave some expia- 
tion, but it did not satisfy the General, but he was obliged to accept 
it, as the contrary could not be proved. I heard Captain Anderson 
tell Dr. Le Brean, that General Washington was fully satisfied that 
Reed had been on the very point of betraying us all to the British, 
but that it could not be fully proved ; and at such a time, it was 
better to keep a strict eye upon him, without getting the army into 
disgrace by exposure. 

" Near the last of May, we had a smart little affair with the British 
at Barren Hill; it was the first time I was under marching orders 
since I left the hospital. The British army came very near sur- 
prising us after night — two of the sentinels of the picket guard 
having fallen asleep on their posts. But we managed to get across 
the river again with very little loss, only eight men killed and 
wounded, and three prisoners. I made a narrow escape, for I heard 
a bullet whistling by my ear as close as it could, without hitting. 
All well at home, I hope. Tell Sally not to forget to knit me a 
supply of woollen stockings, and a couple pair of mittens for next 
winter, for I dread the idea of another Valley Forge ; and give her 
and Ann my kind love. 

"From your affectionate son, 

"ANDREW KEMP." 

My object in giving this introductory letter is to show Mr. 
William B. Reed that the treachery of his grandfather was under- 
stood by the army at large, and that the knowledge of it was not 
confined to a few leading officers. Documents of a more jjrccise, 
specific, and important character, are in my possession, or within 
my means of access ; and shall seasonably appear ; but, unlike 
" McDonoutjli," I do not choose to put my best foot foremost, and 
limp ever aftewards. I subjoin another letter from Sergeant Kemp, 
for the edification of Mr. Reed. 

" Monmoutli Court House, N. J., July 2d, 1778." 
" Dear Mother, — I am laid up again, but after the fatigues of a 
great battle, and a great victor}-, which we fought on the 2Sth of 



61 

June, — James Maris, ^lio had his hand shattered by a bullet, has 
leave of absence for fonr weeks ; and I drop a few lines by the 
opportunity which his going gives me. God be thanked, we have 
had a glorious victory ! The British troops, commanded by Sir Henry 
Clinton, and ours by General Washington, were nearly matched — say 
ten thousand each. We fought from the forenoon till nigh dark ; 
and our whole loss, killed and missing, is short of seventy, while 
the British lost about three hundred, and among them one Colonel 
Monks or Monkston. I have no great time for particulars. The 
men behaved very nobly ; and the morning after, when we found 
that the British had decamped over night, the General [Washington,] 
thanked us all, from horseback. But one thing there is which has 
occasioned much disturbance among us. I mean the conduct of 
General Lee, who attempted to retreat, and who has since been put 
under order, to be court martialed. 

" Then there's that General Reed has been behaving very strangely 
again. Not a man nor officer in the army that does not hate the 
sight of him ; we all believe that he came very near betraying us, 
only that the General [Washington] found him out in time. We 
all remember Valley Forge last winter. Before the battle began, I 
myself heard Gen. Washington whisper to Geueral Greene and 
Wayne, to keep a sharp eye upon Beed's movements, and if he made 
any suspicious attempt, to order him under arrest, and shoot him if 
he resisted. During the whole battle, I never saw him ; but after the 
last gun was fired, and when it was almost dark. General Reed 
suddenly made his appearance from the rear, and gave out that he 
had just had a horse shot in two under him, and asked for two men 
to go and remove bis saddle and holsters. I was one of them ; we 
examined the horse very carefully, and found him to be without hurt 
or scratch ; and he had plain enough died from mere heat, which 
killed several horses and a number of men during the day. The 
story has got wind — some laugh, but others shake their heads about 
it. Jim Maris heard General Washington say to General Wayne in 
the evening, that he abhorred the very sight of Reed, and could 
never again put the least faith in him. This is not the first time 
that General Reed has showed the white feather. He pretended to 
have a horse killed under him, in the same way at the Battle of 
Brandywine, and had two men put in irons for talking about it. I 
am afraid my leg is going to give me a good deal of trouble again 
It is very much swollen, and discharges continually. They have me 
on the sick list. My best love to Sarah and Ann. 

" Your dutitful son, 
(Signed) "ANDREW KEMP." 



02 

Having given the testimony of Sergeant Kemp, I will now have 
the pleasure of introducing to the notice of Mr. William B. llced a 
letter from Col. Samuel Smith, to his old friend in arms. Colonel 

, by whom I have been so kindly supplied with much of the 

reminiscences which I have given to the readers of the Journal, and 
who had addressed to Col. Smith a letter, the nature and object of 
which will best be explained by the following reply : 

" Senate Chamher, Washington, Feh. Yoili, 1832. 

<' My Dear Friend, — Yours of the 9th was received yesterday, 
having been forwarded to me by my family from Baltimore, to which 
place you had addressed it, forgetting my still being in public life at 
Washington. I suppose you think that so old a man, and one who 
has led so busy find active a life, should take the evening of his days 
to his comfort and quiet reflection, and I am not sure but that you 
are right. Public life ought to have but little charms for either you 
or me; we have both seen enough of active service, and should de- 
vote the remnant of time which is left us, to settling our accounts 
with this world, and preparing for a better. 

" I am gratified to hear of the task in which you tell me you are 
engaged. I do not know that it is in my power to afford you much 
of the assistance which you seem to think I can give ; but such 
information as I can communicate is very cheerfully at your service. 
Upon my return to Baltimore, I will examine my papers ; and what- 
ever letters E can spare, which I may think likely to aid you in your 
labors, or illustrate the times of which you propose to write, shall be 
forwarded to your direction. 

" I agree with you that many of the men, and not few of the events, 
of the Kevolution, are very imperfectly understood. Take General 
Washington himself, for example : he is represented as having been 
cold and repulsive in his manner, when the very reverse was the fact. 
True, he was dignified and reserved, but always courteous, and, what 
I admired above all, always sincere. I never knew a man capable of 
stronger attachments ; he had none of the vices of humanity, and 
fewer of its weaknesses than any man I ever knew. I do not believe 
Mr. Jefferson meant to be unjust; but the character drawn of 
Washington, which appears in his recently published papers and 
correspondence, falls, in all respects, very far short of doing him 
justice. Mr. Jefferson had not the sort of mind which was entirely 
capable of appreciating, or even exactly understanding, a character 
like that of Washington's. I saw much of the old General in his 
latter days; visited him several times at Mount Vernon, and fre- 
quently at Washington. Doctor Croih, (my near connexion by 
marriage,) was long his physician and intimate friend, and was in 



63 

attendance upon bis deatb-bed. He bas given me anecdotes innu- 
merable of Wasbington's generosity and kindness of beart, wbicb, 
tbougb, not known to tbe worbil, ougbt to be. Of tbese, I will write 
to you more fully from bome. 

'^ I can communicate but little concerning Gen. Wayne, wbicb you 
do not know already. His son, wbo lives somewbere in your state, 
I sbould take to be a proper person to wbom to apply. I wisb it 
were in my power to answer more fully tban I can, your inquiries 
concerning General Reed. My p'ersonal acquaintance witb bim was 
limited. I sbared in tbe deep dislike witb wbicb be was regarded, 
and bis negotiations witb tbe Britisb commissioners, in tbe spring of 
1778, made bim obnoxious to tbe wbole army, from tbe commander- 
in-cbief to tbe lowest subaltern. You and I talked tbis matter over 
nearly fifty years since, and I bave found notbing to cbange, but 
mucb to confirm, my opinions. It is a little too bad tbat tbis man 
sbould be reverenced by posterity as one of tbe purest of tbe men of 
tbe revolution, wben you and I, and all wbo were really active in 
tbose times, know tbat notbing but accident prevented bis taking tbe 
start of Benedict Arnold. Tbougb not communicative, General 
AYasbington was always candid, and upon tbe subject of Reed's pre- 
meditated betrayal of tbe country to England, be bas frequently 
conversed witb me very freely. iS'one of tbe correspondence between 
Reed and tbe Britisb commissioners, fell into bis bands except tbe 
letter from Governor Jobnston, and an enclosed note in cypber from 
Lord Carlisle, but tbese contained suflicient to assure Wasbington 
tbat a long correspondence bad passed — tbat proposals bad been 
made and debated, and tbat Reed bad finally submitted a proposition 
wbicb tbe commissioners were endeavouring to reduce. Witb tbe 
explanation Reed gave you are familiar. No one believed it, but it 
passed muster, for tbe only proofs wbicb at the time could be bad, 
were tbe intercepted papers. But ever after, Wasbington regarded 
Reed witb great dislike, and treated bim witb a manner strictly 
marked by tbe display of bis feelings. 1 was present wben General 
Wasbington took bis final leave of bis officers at New York, after 
tbe close of tbe revolution, in tbe winter of 1783. Tbe general's 
eyes streamed witb tears, be grasped eacb officer by tbe band, but 
wben Reed approacbed bim witb extended band, be started as if bitten 
by a 'serpent, made a cold bow, and passed on. Afterwards, at 
Annapolis, wbere Congress was tben sitting, I was present wben 
General Reed was repeating to some balf a dozen of delegates, tbe 
old story of bis refusal of tbe commissioner's offer. Wasbington, 
wbo was within three yards of bim, turned away, and remarked to 
General Knox, " I know tbe fellow well ; be wanted but a price, and 
an opportunity, to play us false as Arnold," and passed out of tbe 



64 

room. There was a general titter, and upon Reed's enquiring of 
General Knox what it was that General W. had remarked, Knox re- 
plied, " If you did not hear it, I advise you to follow the general, and 
request him to repeat his observation." Reed was not a fighting man. 
I do not say that he was a coward, but he was always very careful of 
his person. Ilis visit to England in 1784, I could never under- 
stand. His circumstances, just before, were very much embarrassed, 
he had borrowed of all who were willing to lend, and he paid nobody. 
Immediately upon his return, he paid oflf all his debts, including one 
of three thousand dollars to General Wayne, and commenced specu- 
lating in real estate largly, when he was taken ill and died. 

I have given you very near all I have concerning this person. I 
have anecdotes from others, of which I will infoi-m you hereafter; as 
also, the particulars of several conversations which I had with Wash- 
ington respecting him. I have always, from principle, been opposed 
to making mischief; but I have always, at the same time, been 
opposed to trickery and unfounded pretensions. Why the survivors 
of the Revolution have so long permitted General Reed's treachery 
and baseness to be glossed over, and himself converted into a patriot, 
is to me a mystery ; but the veil must be raised at last, and I know 
of no one more capable of performing the task than yourself. 

" Let me hear often from you — and always be assured that I am 
sincerely your friend, SAMUEL SMITH. 

I will close my budget of "documents" as " 3IcDonough" would 
call them, for the present. When I open it again, the information 
to be drawn forth will be even more definite than that just given, 
and possibly, even still less palatable to Mr. Reed. He will pardon 
me for troubling him with two Cjuestions : Among the papers left by 
your grandfather, did you ever come across a copy of a very remark- 
able correspondence had between that person and General Anthony 
Wayne in 1781 ? If yea, why have you withheld it from publication? 
Although 1/ou can answer this last question, I cannot; but I will tell 
you, Mr. Reed, what I can do : I can lay my hands upon a copy of 
the same correspondence, and I propose to entertain the rettders of 
the Journal with a few selections, upon some not very distant occasion. 

In Mr. Reed's selection of ^ period of time to be illustrated by the 
labors of " McDonough," it appears to me he has been unfortunate. 
If he had gone further back, he might have recounted some of the real 
exploits of his grandfather, and spared ine the labor which his defi- 
ciencies have compelled me to undertake. If he had come a little 
further down, he might have dilated upon the performances of his 
father, a Recorder of the city of Philadelphia, and Treasurer and 
Secretary of the University of Pennsylvania. That labor, also, I fear, 
will devolve upon me. VALLEY FORGE. 

Monday, Sept. 25, 1842. 



65 



From the Evening Journal. 

Mr. Whitney — The communication of " McDonougli" (alias U. 
S. Bank Reed,) in this Morning's Court Chronicle, manifests that 
there is no small degree of fluttering among the wounded pigeons of 
the « Holy Alliance." The assumption of " McDonough " that you 
and '■'■ Valley Forge " are one and the same person, is a more novel 
than logical mode of disproving the truth of my allegations. But let 
Mr. Beed rest easy upon that score. \yho I am, is very little to the 
purpose ; icliat I assert is more gerraain to the matter — and let this 
lacquay of Nicholas Biddle deny that if he dare, or disprove it if he 
can. If my charges are true., the identity of their author with the 
editor of the Evening Journal could not detract from their truth ; if 
/a?se, a more obvious as well as conclusive mode of establishing their 
falsity presents itself. 

But the truth is, that no arrow which has been shot into the camp 
of the " Holy Alliance" rankles more deeply, or has worked worse 
execution, than the exposure of the authorship of '< McDonough." 
Not that Mr. Reed is by any means, either intellectually or extrinsi- 
cally, the most formidable member of the combination ; but now it is 
known that lie, is tfie author of those attacks upon the character of a 
good citizen, of a man against whom for years the minions of the Bank 
have been directing their warfare without the ability to discover a 
crevice in his coat of mail, the arm of the puny assailant falls paralyzed 
to his side, and his intended victim laughs at him in a tone of scorn, 
in which the whole community participates. 

William B. Reed to prate of patriotism ! William B. Reed to 
declaim upon honor and patriotism ! For the chimney-sweep to prate 
of cleanliness would not be more anomalous. With what grace does 
the defence of the United States Bank come from this " McDonough " 
of the Chronicle, when we know him to be the veriest lick-spittle that 
Nicholas Biddle, in his day of pride and power, ever retained in his 
service ? As the friend of Nicholas Biddle, as his purchased tool and 
agent, rather, Mr. Reed has never, for an instant, hesitated to sacri- 
fice to the promotion of the interests of the Bank, every public trust 
which for the time being was confided to his keeping. Why is it that 
Mr. Reed has never yet explained away or answered the very extra- 
ordinary and specific disclosures of bribery which a correspondent of 
the Ledger made against him in the summer of 1841? Disclosures 
so astonishing that the eyes of the public, although long accustomed 
to look upon the doings of the man with distrust, dilated with astonish- 
ment. He was accused by the correspondent of the Ledger with 
having as a member of the House of Representatives, nccej)ted bribes 
from the Bank of the United States; the several amounts were speci- 

5 



66 

ficd ; documents were even refored to; and yet Mr. Reed, instead of 
maintaining his good ground and confronting his accuser, flies the city, 
absents himself for some time upon the plea of a previously arranged 
excursion of pleasure ; and when, after his return, driven at length to 
a show of explanation, be parades in print an evasion of charges, so 
paltry that its sophistry would degrade the merest pettifoger in Mr. 
Biddle's Court of Criminal Sessions. 

But since 3Ir. William B. Reed, alias Mr. U. S. B. McDonough, 
is so pure a patriot, and has such a holy horror of " treason " and 
" traitors," I will give him a few facts upon which to reflect, and with 
which be may enrich and illustrate his future lucubrations. 

Fact No. 1. — That Mr. William B. Reed is, or claims to be, the 
grandson of General Joseph Reed, of Revolutionary memory. 

Fact No. 2. — That Mr. William B. Reed is feelingly alive upon 
the subject of his grandfather's memory, and has devoted the labors of 
nearly his whole life to establish the popular delusion that his grand- 
father's patriotism underwent the severest test and ordeal of the re- 
volutionary struggle. 

Fact No. 3. — That Mr. William B. Reed has written essays, re- 
views and paragraphs innumerable, to induce the public to believe, 
that when in 1778 or 1779, Governor Johnstone and the other British 
Commissioners, proposed to General Reed a reward of 10,000 pounds 
sterling, and a luci'ative office, upon condition that he would lend him- 
self to the views of Great Britain, he indignantly spurned the proposal, 
and replied, ''I am not worth the purchase, but such as I am. King 
George is not rich enough to make it." 

Fact No. 4. — That no such proposal was ever made to General 
Joseph Reed, and that General Joseph Reed never made any such 
reply. 

Fact No. 5. — That General Joseph Reed endeavoured to efi"ect a 
negotiation with the British Commissioners, and actually commenced 
it, to ascertain what he might expect, in money and office, in case he 
succeeded in efiecting a reconciliation between the colonies and the 
mother country, or in other words, that he would be instrumental in 
causing the revolted colonies to return to their allegiance to Great 
Britain ! 

Fact No. 6. — That General Joseph Reed, after much chaffering as 
to the price, finally profi"ered his services to the British Commissioners, 
to effect the objects mentioned in " Fact No. 5," for the sum of 10,000 
pounds sterling in hand, a Chief Justiceship, and the right to a tract 
of land We.-t and North-West of the then city of Philadelphia, upon 
a part of which the Cherry Hill Penitentiary is now erected, and the 
whole of which, is at this time probably worth from five to seven mil- 
lions of dollars. 



67 

Fact No. 7. — That while this negotiation was pending, and while 
the hucksters were haggling as to the terms upon which it should close, 
it came to the ears of the American Commander-in-Chief, that General 
Reed was engaged in a very suspicious correspondence with the British 
Commissioners; that General Washington sent for General Reed, and 
in the presence of his staff, informed him of what he had heard, and 
demanded an explanation ; and that General Reed, finding denial out 
of the question, admitted that overtures had been made to him by 
Governor Johnstone and his colleagues, but that he had replied to 
them ; "I am not worth the purchase, but such as I am, King George 
is not rich enough to make it." 

Fact No. 8. — That this patriotic reply of General Joseph Reed, to 
the attributed overtures of the British Commissioners, had its sole 
origin in the explanation with which he sought to dispel the suspicions 
of General Washington ; that G-eneral Washington ever after continued 
to regard him with great distrust ; and that several years subsequently', 
when General Reed, in the presence of General Washington, was des- 
canting upon the patriotic reply with which he had foiled the British 
Commissioners, General Washington turned away in disgust, and re- 
inarked to a friend, in a tone of voice sufficiently audible to be heard 
by all present — f' Iknoio the fellow ivell, and am satisfied that he ivcmtcd 
hut a price and an opportunity to play us as false as Arnold." 

When Mr, Reed shall have sufficiently pondered over the facts 
thus enumerated, I shall descend the ladder a step from his grandfather, 
and come to his more immediate progenitor ! Of him, I shall have 
the great question to ask — what is the reason of his aversion to sun- 
shine, that he secludes himself all day like an owl or a bat? But the 
grandfather will suffice for the present. Mr. Reed has certainly taken 
uncommon pains to keep up the public delusion upon this subject. 
Let him know (what he will soon know to his mortification, )that there 
yet survives a veteran of the revolution — one whose mental faculties 
are uudimmed by age — whose very physical frame, time has treated 
with tenderness and respect — whose keen and lively intelligence re- 
tains its ancient vigour — a Revolutionary soldier, who well knew 
Joseph Reed; who equally well knew George Washington; and who 
intends to give to the world, at no very distant day, his knowledge of 
them, and of much beside. 

Mr. Reed has fair warning — let him look to it. 

Monday, Sept. 19, 1842. VALLEY FORGE. 

From the Evening Journal. 

Mr. Whitney: — Since your publication of my last, "McDonough" 
has slacked his fire wonderfully. It is surprising how one's tone 
becomes altered after the discovery is made that the former idea of 



68 

invnlnerahiUfi/ was a great mistake. The home truths pressed upon 
Mr, William Bradford Reed (I believe this is the first time that the 
public have been made acquainted with the learned gentleman's name 
in full) have proved to be of unpalatable flavor and difficult digestion ; 
and it is not, therefore to be wondered at that they should have for 
him no relish. I have not yet done with the revolutionary remini- 
scences of his grandfather; that worthy whom "King George was 
not rich enough to buy," although, as be himself modestly admitted, 
he was " not icarth lyuiThasing :" 

The writer of this paragraph had an opportunity, very many years 
since, when Mr. Reed was a student of the Pennsylvania University, 
of becoming somewhat intimately acquainted with his bent of mind ; 
and if there ever was a school-boy despised and detested by his fel- 
lows, William was that youth. << The boy 's the father of the man,-" 
and those who have known him only in his ripened years, if they 
apply the truth of this axiom, will have no difficulty in correctly 
conjecturing what must have been his early youth. Even then his 
predominant weakness was to almost daily, and by the hour, expatiate 
upon the merits of his f/reai? " grandfather," and to entertain boys, 
smaller and younger than himself, with the revolutionary exploits — 
more numerous and diversified far than those with a narration of 
which Othello beguiled the fair Desdemona, performed by that dis- 
tinguished personage: and in particular, how "the General" had 
repulsed the proifered bribe of the Treasury of Great Britain, and his 
pick and choice of the most lucrative office in the Colonies. 

Down to this day, this has continued to be the habit of Mr. Reed ; 
and to such an extent has he indulged it, that he has become the butt 
and laughing stock of his acquaintance. 

" 0, wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us 

To see oursels as others see us ! 

It wad frae mauie a blunder free us, 

An foolish notion !" " 

The extraordinary pains taken by Mr. Reed, to circulate the notion 
of his grandfather's more than Roman patriotism, would, of itself, be a 
circumstance calculated to induce suspicion of their being " something 
rotten in Denmark ;" but, fortunately for the truth of history, the 
proofs of General Reed's treachery and meditated '< treason," ^if not 
actual treason, are extant — and the veteran, to whom in my last I 
referred, will, in due time, give them to the world. The descendants 
of General Reed have succeeded long enough in imposing upon the 
American people, as a patriot and a hero of the " times that tried 
men's souls," a wretch, who, in the emphatic language of General 
Washington, spoke in his presence and hearing, " wanted but a price 



69 

and an opportunity to play us false as Arnold !" who, while his fellow 
soldiers were stinted of food and scant of clothing, was in actual treaty 
with the British Commissioners, to betray the American Army, and 
their Commander-in-Chief, and their cause, and tlieir Country, to 
Great Britain, for the consideration of ten thousand pounds sterling, 
a judicial office, and a tract of land ! \ ! 

By a monstrous suppression of truth, and an adroit perversion of 
the explanation which General Beed gave to the demands of the 
American Commander-in-Chief, respecting his correspondence with 
the British Commissioners, his descendants have managed, so far, 
with tolerably general success, to thrust into the ranks of the Carrolk 
and Hancocks, the Putnams and Warrens of the Revolution, a " trai- 
tor," who entered into the struggle as a matter of speculation ; and 
who, from the date of his appointment, in 1774, as one of the Cam- 
mittee of Correspondence of Philadelphia, down to the detection of 
the fact, some years after, that he was engaged in a correspondence 
with the British Commissioners, watched with untiring vigilance, for 
a proper " opportunity" to betray, for a sufficient " price," the 
cause, and the country, to the tender mercies of George the Third 
and his ministry ! There is scarcely a Review or Magazine, published 
in the country, into which, under the pretext of reviewing some 
publication, Mr. William B. Reed has not contrived to obtrude some 
panegyric of his grandfather's patriotism — fulsome, even if true, but 
most monstrous when considered with reference to its unworthy 
object. 

Not content with chaunting Gen. Reed's praise as an " invisible 
singer," Mr. Reed has not hesitated to take the field openly, and iu 
person, and sound the trumpet in the ears and before the eyes of the 
astonished lookers on. Before every literary or collegiate association 
which he has been called on, or Jinejied to have himself invited to 
address, the eternal burden of his song has been, <' I am the grand- 
son of the great and good patriot, General Joseph Reed, of revolu- 
tionary memory, who replied to the emissaries of Great Britain, when 
they oifered him his own terms to further the views of England, ' I 
am not worth the purchase, but poor as I am. King George is not 
rich enough to make it. ' " At New York, a few years since — 
afterwards, in the Musical Fund Hall, in this city — more recently at 
Dickinson College — quite lately at Harvard University, in short, 
everywhere, and on all occasions, the self same tune has lulled his 
audiences into a general slumber. How any one whose cheek is not 
formed of brass, can stand up as Mr. Reed has accustomed himself 
to do, and thus dole out, on all occasions, and before all assemblies, 
the patriotism of a grandfather for whose " treason" he should blush, 
I am at a loss to imagine. Even if deserved modesty ought to insiuu- 



70 

ate that the tribute would be more appropriately paid, and in better 
taste, by other voices. 

But the strongest part of all is, that Mr. Reed, with that fall 
knowledge which I know him to possess (and which I will satisfy him 
that I know him to possess) of his grandfather's traitorous designs 
and conduct, should, nevertheless, have succeeded in steeling himself 
to the habit which has made him so supremely and universally 
ridiculous. 

Whenever it is announced that a new work is in preparation, in 
any way connected with the events of the American Revolution, poor 
Mr. William B. Reed ''gets the fidgets." He throws business, as 
Macbeth did physic, — to the dogs ; he can hardly delay for the intro- 
duction of a supply of clean linen into his carpet-bag; but, jumping 
into the next steamboat or railroad car, he travels post-haste till he 
has reached the residence of the author, whom he never leaves till he 
has fully satisfied himself that the projected work is to contain noth- 
ing that can detract from the spufious fame of General Reed, or call 
into question the truth of his attributed reply to the British Commis- 
sioners. Poor Mr. Jared Sparks must have had a hard time of 
annoyance during the long series of years in which he was engaged in 
preparing for the press his editions of the correspondence of Washing- 
ton and Franklin. Mr. Bancroft, the author of the History of the 
United States, is, at present, a particularly prominent object of Mr. 
Reed's dread. Indef;^tigable in his researches he cannot have failed to 
become possessed of some of the evidences of General Reed's " treason." 
and, stern in his impartiality, it is not to be supposed that he will 
hesitate to place before the world the character and doings of this mis- 
creant in their true colours. Fearful of this, Mr. Reed has long been 
engaged in playing the toady to Mr. Bancroft : with what success 
thus far, remains to be seen : but one thing is certain, that Mr. Ban- 
croft will have placed in his hands, in time to inform him fully for 
his preparation of that volume of his history in which it- will become 
necessary for him to introduce the name of General Joseph Reed, 
letters and documents that will establish the '' treason" of that worthy 
beyond a doubt. 

The last volume of Mr. Bancroft's work comes down no later than 
1784 ; so that there will probably appear another volume before the 
period of General Reed's exploits will become the subject of his com- 
position ; and of this length of time Mr. Reed will doubtless endeavor 
to take advantage and make good use. lie has just made a formidable 
demonstration upon Mr. Bancroft. " At the recent literary festival 
at Cambridge," (to borrow the language of Mr Reed, contained in his 
late letter to the editors of the National Intelligencer, concerning Mr. 
Graham, the historian,) Mr. Reed's toaxhj'm(j of Mr. Bancroft was 



71 

the subject of general comment. Not content witb the display of his 
fulsome civilities on that occasion, Mr. Reed has since forced an 
opportunity of volunteering to the editors of the National Intel i- 
iucer, the letter to which I have just alluded; in which under the 
pretext of honouring the memory of the late James Gi;;^ham i^sq., the 
Encrlish author of a History of American Colonies, Mr Bancroft is 
plastered with praise. It is thus that Mr. Reed seeks either to impose 
upon Mr. Bancroft the same " Romance ot American History, in 
which the grandfather is the principal personage, with which he flatters 
himself he has duped every body else, or to disarm him of ^^J I'^.ten- 
tion of publishing the (rue history of his connection with the British 
Commissioners.-And what most of all enhances the meanness of Mr. 
Reed's conduct is the fact, that, but a year or two since, he was 
accustomed, at the Whig political meetings of this city, to make Mr. 
Bancroft (who then held the office of Collector of the Port of Boston, 
and was a prominent Democrat,) the especial object of his abuse, 
lavished upon him in the most unmeasured terms. 

Such is the man, who, with a thorough knowledge of his grand- 
father.'s delinquencies, persists in upholding him to the world as a 
true and sterling patriot; who, knowing him to be a " frcutor 
steeped in - Treason" to the very eyelids, and seeking to barter 
away his country and its liberties for British gold and oflRce, repre- 
sents him, unblushingly, as the worthy compeer of Washington a 
fellow labourer in the same vineyard, toiling from the rising to the 
netting of the sun ! ! ! But Mr. Reed's race of eulogy of his ancestors 
is nearly run. The proof of that man's treachery, long known to the 
f,,., will soon be promulgated to the many-to the WORLD. _ How 
then will Mr. William B. Reed feel, when he remembers hisi inerant 
career of laudation; his journeyings by sea and by land that the 
trumpet of General Joseph Reed's praises might be sounded ? His 
essays, reviews, addresses, and heaven only knows what al besides . 
Bat, above all, how will he then feel when he remembers that, under 
the stolen name of a naval hero of the Late War, he, this worthy de- 
scendant of a Traitor and Tory of the Revolution, once devoted whole 
weeks to the malignant endeavour to fasten upon a pure and unoflend- 
ing citizen the very crime of - Treason," of which he knew his own 
grandfather to have been guilty ? . , • , 

With one or two little anecdotes, (the character of which _ may 
somewhat surprise Mr. Reed at the extent and accuracy of my intor- 
ination,) I close for the present. I will select those which Mr. Reed 
has the best reasons for knowing to be true. During the visit of 
Lafayette to this country, the father of Mr. William B Reed, (Mr. 
Joseph Reed, the late Recorder of Philadelphia,) called on the 
General at his quarters, in this city, and requested the honour ot a 



72 

private interview. The General (who had been waited upon by Mr. 
Reed before, in company with the authorities, and other citizens) 
intimated his numerous and pressing engagements; but Mr. Reed 
persisting, the interview was granted; one not strictly private, how- 
ever, there being two other gentlemen present. Mr. Reed informed 
the General that his object was to obtain from him some revolutionary 
anecdotes, of which he was convinced he must possess a stock, of 
his father, the late General Joseph Reed. General Lafayette's 
countenance immediately fell : he endeavoured politely to evade Mr. 
Reed's request; at last, as Mr. Reed would take nothing short of 
downright refusal, the General was, at length, compelled to remark, 
'' I am sorry to say, sir, that I am acquainted with no anecdotes of 
the late General Reed which it would be pleasant for his son or any 
of his friends to hear." Mr. R. having bowed himself out of the 
room in great confusion, the General remarked to one of the gentle- 
man present, in surprise, ''This is verystrarge! Can it be possible 
that Mr. Reed is ignorant of the opinion which the officers of the 
Revolution entertained of his father?" And now for another, in 
which Mr. William B. Reed himself figured. A year or two before 
the death of Bishop White, he called on the venerable prelate and 
made a request precisely similar to that with which his father had 
troubled General Lafayette. Anxious to spare his feelings, the good 
Bishop endeavoured to change the subject; but, no other mode 
oflFering of escaping from the pertinacity of Mr. Reed, he said to him, 
" Young man, upon the subject of your grandfather, the least that's 
said, will be soonest mended !" 

In my next, I will so far follow the example of McDonough, as to 
publish a few " Documents," the original of which will be consigned, 
before long, to Mr. Bancroft. 

VALLEY FORGE. 
Sept. 23d, 1842. 

From the ETening Journal, 

Mr. Whitney :— The Jeremiads of the Forum and the Evening 
Courier shall not deter me from the task which I have deliberately 
assumed, and which I mean to carry out, of exposing the treachery 
of the late General Joseph Reed, and the delinquencies of his living 
grandson, Mr. William Bradford Reed. Why, instead of deprecation, 
do not these journals give dUproof? Is a fellow to be canonized as 
a saint, because he is no longer of the living? Then let all history 
be rewritten, and let the puling mawkishncss which the hypocrites 
call manly indignation, reject from the page of history the infamy 
of a Nero, the cruelty of a Tiberius, and the treason of an Arnold. 
If it be proper for the entertainment or instruction of posterity, that 



the vices and crimes of the men of history shall be faithfully detailed, 
why should not the " treason" of General Heed, contemplated or 
effected, be spread upon his country's annals ? Above all, when he 
and his descendants have adroitly disguised his vilJaiuy with the 
varnish of incorruptible patriotism, why should the hand which has 
the power to tear off the mask, and expose the enormity of guilt, be 
made to fall, self-withheld and self-paralyzed, from the effort? These 
are questions which admit of but one reply. I shall r/o on, and in 
continuation of my developments, I here subjoin another letter from 
Col. Samuel Smith to the same gentleman to whom was addressed 
his last. 

Baltimore, Octoler 2d, 1832. 

My Dear Colonel — I acknowledge the receipt of your two very 
kind letters since I left Washington, and thank you for the acceptable 
accompaniment of the last. Also, for the pamphlet on Cholera 
which you have sent — I loaned it to several of our medical gentlemen, 
and they all seem to think highly of it. Our people have been much 
alarmed, and I think with good reason. For my own part, I enter- 
tain but little uneasiness. I have lived a long life, and though I am 
far from tired of it, I am ready to go whenever it pleases him who 
gave it to take it away. 

Looking over my paper, I have directed copies to be made up such 
as seem adapted to your purpose. These, and some original, I will 
send to your direction, whenever I hear from you again, and you 
inform me how to send them. I have but few letters from Gen. 
Washington — the originals I cannot consent to part with; but copies 
are cheerfully at your service. I have had a copy taken of a very re- 
markable correspondence between General Wayne and General Reed, 
which awaits your directions. I was on a visit to Wayne shortly after 
its close; he read it to me, and I was so much struck with it, that I 
requested leave to take a copy, which he gave me. You will find it 
a curiosity, and it is another development of the real character of 
Reed. I think I formerly mentioned I knew but little of Gen. 
Wayne, with which you are not already acquainted, and I may say 
much the same as to Putnam, except what I had from conversation 
with General Washington. I have never been able to make up my 
mind how far Gen. Gates was concerned in the movement for his 
promotion, at Washington's expense. He certainly did not openly 
encourage it. It is so delicate a matter, I did not like to directly 
question General Washington. Once or twice, in conversation, I 
thought he was coming to the point, but he broke off without reach- 
ing it. Many of Conway's movements against Washington had a 
tact and address about them, for which Gates generally received the 



credit. Towards the close, his calumnies of Washington were dis- 
gustingly obscetie — I mean Conway's. General Reed was well 
known to be deeply engaged in this conspiracy. But he lacked the 
cournge of Conway, and was wholly without the rashness which so 
frequently marked the latter. Reed was a cautious and cunning 
plotter — he never looked one in the eye. Lee, who mortally hated 
him, had a common saying, "that Reed's face was stamped with the 
devil's favorite brand." I was once present when he made the re- 
mark in the presence of Reed, without ob.serving him. Reed stepped 
forward, and angrily demanded " what was that, sir ?" Lee bowed 
and repeated the observation, amid roars of laughter from all present. 
General Reed left the spot, remarking, "you shall hear from me 
shortly;" to which Lee replied, " I doubt that." Nothing further 
ever came of it. 

Conway and Reed were decidedly the two most unpopular men in 
the army — with this difference, that Conway, though disliked, was 
respected, until his calumnies of Washington were carried to their 
extent. Of Conway's duel with General Cadwalader I have no 
particulars which you do not possess. Conway became nearly 
involved in another duel on Reed's account. He took up a quarrel 
of Reed's but it was compromised. Reed was publicly insulted, 
and submitted like a boarding-school miss. My sentiments on 
some subjects have changed with my advancing years; but I well 
remember the surprise which I felt, and which the whole army es- 
.pressed, that a soldier, and one wearing epaulettes, should patiently 
submit to the epithet of " liar," and a threat of having his nose 
pulled. It may have been a conscientious scruple ; but he did not 
hesitate to get others into difSculties. 

In 1783 or '84, I had business which called me to Alexandria. 
To my delight, I met General Washington there, and he insisted 
upon my accompanying him home. The weather was wet and cold, 
and, for a wonder, as he expressed himself, he was without visiters 
but me. I remained at Mount Vernon several days and had many 
and long conversations with the General. While there, one of his 
newspapers mentioned the return of General Reed from England, in 
feeble health ; and this induced a conversation concerning that per- 
son. I reminded the General of the coolness with which I had seen 
him treat Reed at the final leave-taking of his officers ; and of the 
remark I had afterwards heard him make at Annapolis. The par- 
ticulars I gave you in my letter from the Senate. General Washing- 
ton rose, stamped his foot somewhat violently ; then instantly 
checking himself, he paced the room slowly, speaking while he 
walked. I remember every thing he said as plainly as if it had 
been spoken only yesterday. He stated to me, that he had no doubt 



75 

that General Reed had long been in treaty with the British before 
the arrival of their Commissioners in Philadelphia in 1778 ; and that, 
after the treaty of peace, in 1783, he received information, which 
placed it beyond question, that, in the appointment of the Com- 
missioners, the British Ministry had selected Lord Carlisle with ex- 
press reference to an acquaintance which he had had with Reed, 
when Reed was in England, seventeen or eighteen years before. 

He mentioned that, in 1777, while the army was yet encamped at 

Valley Forge, Mrs. , a lady from Philadelphia, with whom Reed 

was long known to have had a criminal intercourse, was arrested 
within the lines, and that her suspicious conduct induced a search, 
which led to the discovery of a letter upon her person, from Governor 
Johnstone to General Reed, and enclosing a note from Lord Carlisle, 
which was in cypher. This letter related to overtures upon which 
Donop, the Hessian ofEcer, and General Reed, had already exchanged 
their views; pronounced them to be somewhat extravagant; and 
suggested that Reed had better close the arrangement which had 
been proposed to Count Donop, and he would have no reason to com- 
plain. The ten thousand pounds of which Donop spoke, Johnstone 
said would be immediately paid, and he did not think there would be 
any difSculty about the land or its equivalent ; but of the office that 
Donop mentioned, he (Governor Johnstone,) could not speak with 
confidence ; upon that subject, the enclosed note from Lord Carlisle, 
Governor Johnstone said, would inform General Reed more definitely. 
This note being in cypher, General Washington informed me he 
never succeeded in having unravelled. Immediately upon receiving 
these papers, General Washington informed me he called a council, 
and sent for Reed. He placed the two letters in General Reed's 
hands, and demanded an explanation. Unfortunately, the ofiicer 
whom he had sent for Reed had informed him what had happened 
and he had thus some time and opportunity for preparation. Reed 
professed himself unable to read the note in cypher, and said he did 
not know what it meant. 

As to the letter from Governor Johnstone, he explained that 
overtures had been some time before made to him, off'ering him his 
own reward, upon condition of his bringing about a peace, but that 
he had replied, " that he was not worth the purchase, but poor as he 
was, King George was not rich enough to make it." When General 
Washington demanded why he had not before informed him of this 
communication. Reed replied, that though he w^as incorruptible, he 
was afraid of letting it bo known what offers had been made, lest 
other officers might have been tempted to accept them. Reed was 
placed under arrest until further inquiries were made, but they were 
not successful, and he was released. The female upon whom the 



76 

letters were detected, had been released, after being searched, and 
though every effort was made to get her again it was fruitless. 
General Washington added, that through the rest of the war, he 
watched Reed narrowly, and trusted him with nothing; and though 
he had no further proo/ of his guilt, he was satisfied that his treason 
had existed. But G-eneral Washington informed me, that after the 
peace, he had received information, the source of fwhich he was not at 
liberty to divulge, but the truth of which he had satisfied himself of, 
that nothing but the accidental intercepting of Johnstone's and Car- 
lisle's letters, had prevented Eeed's consummation of treason. He 
had become fully convinced, after the disbanding of the army, that 
Reed had had numerous personal interviews during the war, with 
leading British officers ; that he had seen Donop at Burlington ; that 
he had been repeatedly within the British lines, and that he 7wiv 
knew that, after the battle of Germantown, he had visited the 
English General, Howe, at his Head Quarters, in Philadelphia. 

I have now given you, accurately, the substance of General 
Washington's conversations upon this subject. It fully accounts for 
his marked treatment of Reed at New York and Annapolis ; and it 
must convince you what a precious rogue in grain this counterfeit 
patriot was. 

My letter will not reach you for some time after its date. My 
arm is stiff, and I write slowly ; and, although I have but one date, 
I have written a little each day for four days. God bless you, my 
old friend, and make me hear frequently from you. 

Yours very truly, 

SAMUEL SMITH. 

I allow Mr. William Bradford Reed till Saturday to meditate upon 
this epistle. On that day, unless he should anticipate me, and pub- 
lish the correspondence with Wayne, to which Colonel Smith refers, 
1 shall have the pleasure of presenting it to the public eye. It is a 
light that ought not to be hidden under a bushel ; but should be 
placed upon an elevation higli as the summit of the Bunker Hill 
Monument, that it may be seen far and wide. 

VALLEY FORGE. 
Octobci- 1st, 1842. 

October 5th, 1842. 
Mr. Wiiitxey. — While exposing the demerits of Mr. William 
Bradford Reed, I have no disposition to disparage whatever of 
ability or information he may really possess; and concerning the 
letter, I cheerfully acknowledge that he has made himself very 
thoroughly accjuainted with the true character of the leading men 
and events of the American Revolution. 



/ / 

But it is tliis that constitutes bis chief shame. In his absurd 
panegyrics of his " Grrandfather," he has not been imposed upon ; 
he is seeking to impose upon others, and in this he has, to a very 
considerable extent, succeeded ; he is sinning against the excess of 
light and the superfluity of knowledge. Possessing the most ample 
proofs of his grandfather's treachery to his country in the darkest 
hour of his country's peril, Mr. William B. lieed has not hesitated 
to hold him up to that very country which he sought to betray, and 
did well nigh betray, and would have J^etrayed, but for the timely 
interception of his treasonable correspondence with the British 
Commissioners, as one of the most glorious and incorruptible of the 
patriots who fought and suffered for the establishment of American 
Independence ! The guilt of this will cling to Mr. Reed enduringly. 
Never can he shake off its contamination. Could he escape from 
the odium of his more immediate personal delinquencies; his fawning 
sycophancy of Nicholas Biddle; his dirty work in behalf of that 
man for money, not for love ; could he deluge with Lethean ocean 
the public memory, his malpractices as attorney-general ) his venal 
career as a member of the Legislature; could he induce the 
public to overlook the bribes which he pocketed under the pretext of 
fees received for services never performed — bribes, the amount of 
which and the dates of whose reception, are well known, and sus- 
tainable by documentary reference; — could all this be erased, as 
systematic and persevering labours, from his boyhood upward, to 
delude a much injured country into reverence for the memory, not of 
the contemporary, but of the predecessor of Benedict Arnold in 
" treason" have won for him an infamy from the consequences of 
which escape is impossible. 

I have heretofore referred, in general terms, to Mr. Heed's 
numerous applications, by writing and in person, to such survivors of 
the Revolution, or their descendants, as he supposed could furnish 
the information he desired, for anecdotes of General Reed ; a part of 
my labours, hereafter to be entered upon, will be to narrate not a few 
of the rebuffs and rebukes this unfortunate Doctor Syntax in search 
of the biographical Pickenesque has experienced, and the minute 
fidelity with which my sketches shall be marked, will contribute, let 
me assure Mr. Reed, no less to his surprise than mortification, nay, 
I will establish that much of the information, that many of the 
documents, which 1 propose to lay before the readers of the Evening 
Journal, he and his brother, the Professor, possess ; that copies of 
some of the latter have long been in their hands ; and that Mr. 
William B. Reed has solicited the transfer or destruction of the 
originals. But I will even do more than all this, I will, in at least 
two instances, imhlish his own Utter, praying for the loan if not the 



78 

gift, of original papers affecting the fairie of his grandfather. Eoen 
here I do not mean to stop. I shall show that Mr. Reed succeeded 
in inveigling from the possession of a gentleman of my acquaintance, 
for a pretended temporary purpose, a letter, the publication of which 
he supposed ; and a part, I may say a prominent part, of Mr. Reed's 
scheme to perpetuate the delusion of his grandfiither's patriotism, has 
been to write or call upon, every person projecting any work con- 
nected with the Revolution ; and by tendering information, or other- 
wise volunteering his assistance, to deceive or disarm. He has 
played his game, so far, with very clever success ; and, as I formerly 
mentioned, it is one which he is at present engaged in practising 
upon Mr. Bancroft — that same Mr. Greorge Bancroft, whom, at a 
political meeting in this city, held some four or five years since, he 
so delicately described as a <' tin cannister tied to the tail of Martin 
Van Buren, while Martin Van Buren, was running through the 
street, like a hot slut, with the whole kennel of loco-focoism bawling 
at her heels I" Adapting this figure to circumstances, as it might be 
introduced with great effect, into Mr. Reed's collegiate eulogy upon 
the services and patriotism of his grandfather. 

In Col. Smith's last published letter to Col. , he promised to 

furnish the latter with copies of certain letters, and in another he 
says. 

"I cannot answer your inquiry about Captain Anderson. I knew 
several officers of that name, but can recal nothing particular con- 
cerning any of them. I once received a letter from a person some 
where in the State of Delaware, calling himself Heni'y Anderson, 
inquiring about his uncle Captain Anderson, of the Revolutionary 
army, but I have not retained, or mislaid the letter, and cannot call 
to mind his more particular address. But even this defective infor- 
mation may serve to put you on the scent. 

" Your son will tell you much for me that I would otherwise write. 
My rheumatism has prevented my showing him as much of the 
civilities of our town as I would have liked, but you will excuse me. 
" Most truly and sincerely, 

'< your old friend, 

" SAMUEL SMITH. 

From among the accompaniments of this letter transmitted by 
Col. Smith, I select, for incorporation in the present article, the 
following correspondence between General Anthony Wayne and 
General Joseph Reed. The '' Xumhers" with which they are pre- 
fixed appear to be of General "Wayne's own addition. 



79 

No. 1. 

Gen. a. Wayne, 

My Dear General — 

Only the day before yesterday I beard of your being here, and then 
but by accident, or I should have aSdressed you upon the subject of 
this communication. For several months there has been a rumor 
industriously circulated in this city, that during the last summer, you 
stated while in " South Carolina," in the presence of General Greene 
and other officers, that my conduct at the battles of Brandywine and 
Monmouth had subjected me to the imputation of timidity. It is 
added that you referred disparagingly to circumstances which occurred 
at Valley Forge, and revived the exploded calumny, for the truth of 
which you personally vouched, that I had signified my acceptance of 
the terms then oifered me by the Commissioners, which you know 
that I spurned with scorn. 

Of course you will understand me to be satisfied that you never did 
use any language of the kind, but, as these remarks have been propo- 
gated by persons who, I have every reason to believe, are no less your 
enemies than mine. I am anxious to afford you an opportunity for 
their contradiction, and this I have to request you will promptly give 
me. 

I should be sorry that malicious and designing persons should have 
it in their power to disturb the harmony of the relations which I have 
so long enjoyed with one upon whose friendship I set so high a value, 
and for whom I entertain a peculiar esteem. 
With great respect and cordiality, 

I am my Dear General, yours, &c., 

JOS. REED. 

Dec'r 2Gth, 1783. 

No. 2. 

Philadelpliia, December 27(7i, 1783. 
Sir — The cool eflProntery of your note yesterday surprised me. By 
what right you presume to refer to any harmony of relations between 
us, and to speak of the value of my <' friendship" I am at a loss to 
comprehend. That harmony was first disturbed by the pecuniary 
difficulties in which you so dishonestly involved me, and from which 
I am only now beginning to extricate myself, apart from which I 
could entertain no feelings of " friendship" for an officer for whom 
I have such abundance of reasons for entertaining sentiments of a 
very difi"erent description. I have no doubt that my remarks to 
General Greene and others have been correctly reported to you, not 
only in South Carolina and Georgia, but years ago in Pennsylvania, 



80 

and within the immediate reach of your personal demand. I have 
never hesitated, on all proper occasions to express myself in similar 
terms. I never merely intimated that your conduct at the battles of 
Brandywine and Monmouth had subjected you '< to the imputations of 
timidity," but I have always said that your behaviour at those battles, 
particularly that of Chad's Ford, should have secured your dismissal 
from the army. 

What you refer to as " the exploded calumny" of your negotia- 
tions with the enemy at Valley Forge, I in common with every officer 
in the army, with whom I have ever conversed upon the subject, 
including the Commander-in-chief, believe to be strictly well-founded. 

I am Sir, yours, 

ANTHONY \YAYNE. 

To Joseph Reed. 

VALLEY FORGE. 

We take the following communication of Mr. Smith, from the 
North American of this morning. 

'< In compliance with this arrangement, I came to this city this 
evening, accompanied by three of my friends conversant with my 
father's handwriting, viz; Hon. Louis McLane, Robert Gilmore, and 
Robert Purviance, Esqrs., and was met at the place and hour of ap- 
pointment by William B. Reed and Henry Reed, Esqrs., and waited 
there until half-past eight o'clock, without the appearance of the 
author of " \'alley Forge," or any of his friends. 

JNO. SPEAR SMITH. 

Wasliivgton House, Parlor No. 3, 

Monday, October 2Mi, 1842. 

In relation to this matter, we received through the Post-Office this 
morning, the following explanation from Valley Forge. 

" Mr. Whitney : — I am unable to express my mortification at the 
unhappy and unexpected accident which has prevented my meeting 
the Messrs. Reed and Mr. John Spear Smith this evening, at the 
time and place appointed by them, for the purpose of having tested 

the authenticity of General Samuel Smith's letters to Colonel , 

Col. is my near relative, and though, in his ninety-third year, 

has till last Thursday, enjoyed the most excellent health for one of 
so advanced an age. As he will not permit the originals to be taken 
out his sight, I intended of course that he should accompany me as 
one of my three friends. Plis sudden and severe illness has rendered 
this impossible ; he refuses to part with the documents even for a 
temporary purpose, and I have thus been compelled to submit for the 
present to this most mortifying piece of ill-fortune. 



81 

No doubt the exultation of the Messrs. Keed will be violent, but 
let me say to them, it will be but short-lived. But a brief time will 
pass, and all the papers which I have published, and many more 
which are yet to come, will be fully proved and laid before the pub- 
lic. When Colonel 's health is restored, I do not doubt that I 

shall prevail upon him to place them in my hands, when I shall see 
Mr. John Spear Smith with them at Baltimore and have the Messrs. 
Reed see them here. 

VALLEY FORGE. 
October 2-i:th, 1842." 

We do not approve of this course of procedure on the part of 
Valley Forge, nor do we think it a proper one. We think he ought 
to have met Mr. Smith and the Messrs. Reed at the place and time 
appointed, and made the explanation in person. Under any circum- 
stances, we think it was due to them as well as to ourselves. The 
proposition which was made by Valley Forge having been accepted by 
the above-named gentlemen, what reason can there be for longer pre- 
serving his incognito? Indeed he expressed his willingness, in one 
of his notes, which we publish below, to unveil himself as soon as 
the proposition he made was accepted. 

We had, from the first, as we have now, the fullest confidence that 
the letters purporting to be from the late General S. Smith were 
genuine, as well as that the intentions of Valley Forge, so far as con- 
cerned ourselves, were fair, and that he would establish the authenti- 
city of those letters, and the other documents contained in his 
communications. 

Our belief in the genuineness of the letters of General Smith, was 
strengthened by the perusal of a letter which we now have before us, 
addressed to General Joseph Reed, by General John Cadwalader, in 
1783, which corroborates what those letters contain. In that letter 
the latter gentleman says, " Having fully stated the temper of men's 
minds at this alarming period, and the situation of public aflfairs, I 
shall now recite the conversation and circumstances relating thereto, 
which I have avowed in my letter to you of the 10th September, as 
having passed between us at l>ristol. 

<•' I had occasion to speak with you, a few days before the intended 
attack on the 20th December, 1776, and requested you to retire with 
me to a private room at my quarters ; the business related to intelli- 
gence — a general conversation, however, soon took place concerning 
the state of public affairs, and after running over a number of topics, 
in an agony of mind, and despair strongly expressed on your counte- 
nance, and tone of voice, you spoke your apprehensions concerning 
the event of the contest ; that our affairs looked very desperate, and 

6 



82 

we were only making a sacrifice of ourselves; that the time Gen. 
Howe's offering pardon and protection to persons who should come 
in before the 1st January, 1777, was nearly expired ; and that 
Gralloway, the Aliens, and others, had gone over and availed them- 
selves of that pardon and protection offered by said proclamation ; 
that you had a family, and ought to take care of them, and that you 
did not understand following the wretched remains (or remnants) of 
a broken army ; that your brother (then Colonel or Lieutenant 
Colonel of the militia — but you say of the five month's men, which 
is not material) was then at Burlington with his family, and that you 
had ordered him to remain there, and if the enemy took possession 
of the town, to take a protection and swear allegiance — and in so 
doing he would be perfectly justifiable. 

<' This was the substance, and I think nearly the very words ; but 
that, ^^ you did not understand folloviing the wretched 7-emains (or 
remnants\ of a hrohen army ! I perfectly remember to be the very 
words l" 

The letter of General Cadwalader contains the letters of P. Dickin- 
son, John Nixon, Benjamin Bush, David Lenox, A. Hamilton, and 
a numbers of other persons, confirming what we have quoted. 
The subjoined notes from Valley Forge gave us confidence in the 
fairness of his intentions. 

B. M. Whitney, Esq : Dear Sir — I observe an invitation in 
yesterday's Journal, for me to call at, or send to, your office, for some 
information which you have to impart. For reasons which I shall 
liave the pleasure of expressing to you hereafter in person, I am 
anxious to preserve my incognito, for the present, even with my 
nearest friends ; and this consideration will prevent my calling. I 
am also at a loss to know how to send ; but if you will drop me a 
few lines in the letter box of the Post-office, I shall not fail to re- 
ceive them. 

Very truly, &c., 

VALLEY FOBGE. 
September 12,d, 1842. 

Please direct to "Ambrose Anderson, Philadelphia." 

R. M. Whitney, Esq., Dear Sir, — I am favored with your note, 
refering me to General Cadwalader's pamphlet, which you inform me 
has been abstracted from the Philadelphia Library. I have access to 
material, far beyond any thing in importance and value which could 
possibly be obtained by General Cadwalader ; nevertheless the abstrac- 
tion of his pamphlet is a circumstance which I will not fail to turn to 
good account. The gentleman to which I so often refer, in my com- 



83 

munications as the revolutionary soldier who has furnished me with 
information, is a near relative of mine, who knew Gen. Joseph Reed 
thoroughly. I shall continue my communications from time to time; 
and you may rely upon my giving you nothing, which does not admit 
of literal substantiation. Among other letters which I have, are 
several from "George Clymer," (whom you mention in your note,) 
which hit the nail on the head. 

Will you permit me the liberty of suggesting a continuance of your 
vigorous editorials upon Stephen Girard? The word « finessed" in 
my last, your compositor has transformed into finified. 

Respectfully &c., 

VALLEY FORGE. 

Sept. 25, 1842. 

Reuben M. Whitney, Esq., Dear Sir, — I am afraid that, in 
copying Sergt. Kemp's first letter, I have made an error of date, on 
which account I am glad my communication has not appeared to-day, 
as it gives me an opportunity of correction. I am anxious to avoid 
even the slightest mistake in my communications. The letter is dated 
"June 23rd, 177S." I am not certain that T did not so transcribe it; 
but if I did not, be good enough to make the correction. I particu- 
larly wish you would italicise my interrogatory to Reed relative to his 
grandfather's correspondence with General Wayne. There is a point 
in it which he will fully understand, and which will give him more 
uneasiness than all else. I intend reserving my extracts from that 
correspondence for the very last. 

Respectfully, &c. 

VALLEY FORGE. 

Sept. 27, 1842. 

R. M. Whitney, Esq., — Dear Sir — I am provoked to find that, 

upon comparing my copy of Col. Smith's letter to Col. , with the 

original, that I have made another error ! I hope this will reach you 
in time for its correction. Speaking of his visit to Gen. Washington 
at Mount Vernon and Washin(/io7i, it should be, and Philadelphia. 

Respectfully, &c., 

VALLEY FORGE. 
Sept. 28, 1842. 

R. M. Whitney, — Dear Sir — I have been absent for a day or two 
from the city, and did not receive your note until to-day. I enclose a 
note for publication — oblige me by letting it appear to-morrow. I . 



84 

cannot imagine how so stupid an errox* could have occiured as the er- 
roneous date of Kemp's discharge by Gen. Washington. But the 
error almost corrects itself — as Kemp's letter of July 2d, speaks of 
the battle of Monmouth on the 28th. I do not know whether the 
blunder is that of your workman, or mine in the haste of transcribing. 
One or two other errors, which are mine, I made the subject of two 
notes, which I addressed you through the Post-office. My absence 
from town, and my intended absence to-morrow, prevent my preparing 
another article for Saturday. Possibly, I will have it ready for Mon- 
day, and certainly for Tuesday- Acknowledge its receipt, and that it 
will appear on Monday or Tuesday. I have not yet come to the real 
gems of my budget. Reed shall have a surfeit. 

Respectfully, &c., 

VALLEY FORGE. 
Sept. 30, 1842. 

R. M. Whitney, Esq : Dear Sir — Nothing could have afforded 
me more pleasure than the publication which has been made by the 
Reeds. It has given me the opportunity, which I have from the first 
been seeking, of bringing the question of General Reed's revolutionary 
exploits to a crisis. I pledge myself to you, that I will overwhelm 
them with confusion and shame. 

I have not called for your letter at the Post-office, because I know 
that I am ivatched ; and I do not desire to be known till the adoption 
of my proposition to the Reeds, of which I speak in the accompanying 
communication, and which I will furnish for publication in Monday's 
.Journal. They have fallen completely into the snare. 

Yours, &c., very truly, 

VALLEY FORGE. 

October 14, 1842. 

In his explanatory communication of yesterday's date. Valley Forge 
speaks of many more papers " which are yet to come : " we suppose he 
means yet to be published. If so, we feel constrained to say now, 
that we cannot publish any thing more relating to the matter until 
he announces to us, at least, his real name. 

From the Evening Journal. 

R. M. Whitney, Esq : Dear Sir, — I am pained beyond measure, 
at the situation in which I have been so unfortunately instrumental 
in placing you. But fur circumstances lohich 1 raiiuut possib/i/ run- 



85 

ti-ol, I would promptly communicate to you my name and residence. 

A pledge, rigidly exacted by my venerable relative, Col. , and 

solemnly given by me at the time he consented that I should com- 
municate to you the letters of the late General Smith, and the other 
papers with which he furnished me, that I should not make either 
him or myself known without his consent, binds me as with links of 

iron. Col. is slowly recovering from the paralytic aflPection 

with which he was seized on the 20th of this mouth ; and let me 
assure you, most sacredly and solemnly, that as soon as his health is 
sufficiently restored to allow a conversation of any length to be had 
with him, I will not fail to convince him of the propriety — of the 
necesdty — of permitting me to call upon you, or invite you to his 
residence, where, preliminary to my taking the proper steps to con- 
vince the public of their authenticity, I may exhibit to you all the 
writings which have been so exultingly prounounced to be " audacious 
forgeries." 

You do me but justice, when you say, that «' a careful perusal of 
the letters of Valley Forge, confirms the belief, that he is neither an 
impostor nor a forger of letters." Why should I be ? What motive 
could induce any rational being to originate a fahrlcation so sure to 
be detected ? You will find, ere very long, that I have given you 
nothing but the truth. Only one liberty did I venture to take with 
any of the correspondence — that was from considerations of delicacy, 
which I now believe to have been fastidious^, and to which, at the 

time, I reluctantly yielded. In Gen. Smith's letter to Col. , 

dated Oct. 2d, 1832, I substituted a Ikmk for the name of 3lrs. 
Ferguson," which Gen. Smith gives as that of the" lady from whom 
was taken the letter of Governor Jonstone to Gen. Keed. This, the 
onii/ alteration I ever made, you must allow, was a pardonable error. 

<« Truth is mighty and must prevail ;" and in this case, to the joy 
of your friends, and the consternation of your enemies, it shall be 
signally exemplified. For the present, let me entreat you to rest 
satisfied with my assurances ; assurances which will soon be most 
thoroughly redeemed ; and that you will desist from your endeavor 
to discover who 1 am — efforts which can give you but vain trouble, 
which must prove fruitless; for the precautions which I have 
adopted for the preservation of my incognito, it is impossible to 
overcome. 

Very truly, &c., 

VALLEY FORGE. 

October 29tl., 184:^ 



86 

From the Evening Journal, October 31st, 

" Valley Forg^' and General Joseph Reed — Is there a Sejpidchral 
Sanctuary for Public Men? — The success of the American Revolu- 
tion — Justice and, Truth essential Elements of History — " Forgery" 
— The Editor, &c. 

Whatever motives may have actuated " Valley Forge" to the pub- 
lication of documents aflPecting the revolutionary services and fame of 
General Joseph Reed, and we pretend not either to scan them, or doubt 
their honorable complexion — for truth, when on the side of country 
and patriotism, admits not of suspicion or mistrust — whatever motive, 
we say, may have impelled him to the revelation of these important 
historical documents, there can exist no doubt as it respects the 
principle which sustains the ransacking of the grave, for the sake of 
truth. Begin at any period of history, however early, and it will be 
found that puhlic men have always been considered as public property 
— their characters, their conduct and their opinions, belonging to the 
world, with no privilege of sanctuary, either in life or in the tomh. 
It was so with the Hebrews, it was so with Persians, the Babylonians, 
the G-recians, the Romans, the French, the English, and even the 
Chinese, Indeed, so obvious is the principle, as almost to dispense 
with argument. It bears on its very face, the irresistible force of a 
first principle; for if the grave cannot cover up the r/ooc7 deeds of men, 
it never can be made to conceal their evil ones. The lessons of history, 
like the lessons of life, are derived more from the wicked than the 
good. The striking contrast of example, comes from the man who has 
perpetuated deeds that curdle the blood with fear, or crimson the 
cheeks with shame. Virtue is negative, quiet, undismayed — but vice 
rides aloft on the back of desecrated principles and violated laws, ac- 
companied by the tumultuous rush of a moral whirlwind, overturning 
the fruits, blossoms and harvest of life; bearing blasts upon its brow, 
and leaving havoc in its train. And so do the laws of all well 
governed countries dispose of the remains of notorious felons, who, 
instead of being suffered to repose in the grave, are denied all inter- 
ment; their bodies being delivered over to the surgeons for the benefit 
of science, or exposed on a gibbet, till the crows, eagles and vultures, 
devour their flesh, and then, even their bones are left to blacken in 
the winter's blast, as a warning to man, to shun the deeds that led 
them to their doom. 

Where is the sepulchral sanctuary for Buonaparte ? or for Nero ? or 
for Marius, Sylla, Otho, Galba, Charles of Burgundy, or Ferdinand of 
Spain? How many patriots are commemorated in the Lives of 
Plutarch ? Expunge from the History of England the great scoundrels 
who disgraced their diadems, on the plea of sepulchral sanctuary, and 



87 

how many kings 'will remain to grace their pages with the splendor of 
their virtues ? The same question may be asked in reference to all 
histories, and the same answers given ; there would be no history, if 
the grave silenced the tongue to speak of the vices and crimes of the 
dead who disgraced their nature. 

To return to the principle of success, as a standard of virtue, in 
great revolutionary movements. The intrinsic merit of a civil move- 
ment, or commotion, to produce a change of government by force of 
arms, or social intimidation without bloodshed, is not suflScient to 
glorify its actors. Success is essential to give renown which confers 
fame and glory on its authors. This was fully understood during the 
American Revolution. A host of calculating spirits stood mute, inac- 
tive, or luke-warm, watching the changes of the contest, and fearful 
of embarking in a cause that might miscarry. In such a crisis, the 
wavering, the doubtful and the timid, were more dangerous to their 
country's cause than the open traitor in arms against freedom. The 
generous, the brave, the frank, the self-devoted patriot, rushed head- 
long into the contest, putting in peril, life, honor, property, fame, 
family, friends, children — all that is dear to life, and all that life 
endears. The calculating and timid palsied their daring counsels by 
weak irresolution of wicked duplicity. Among these time-servers, it 
seems General Joseph Reed stood prominent. Careful of his person, 
he shunned danger. Calculating the probable miscarriage of the 
Revolution, he occupied the prudent ground of atory royalist, seeming 
to battle for liberty, but ready, at any moment; to assume the scarlet 
uniform, and shout <' God save King George !" A traitor in his heart 
to the cause of Independence, lest that cause, by failing, should make 
him a traitor to his king, for whom he felt a warmer affection than 
for the rebels — he stood always on the alert, to join the British, or to 
appear their greatest foe ; practising the meanest arts to seem brave, 
yet always held in open contempt for his timidity and cowardice. If 
the Revolution succeeded, he calculated to pass for a patriot. If the 
royal arms triumphed, he stood prepared to claim the rewards of his 
fidelity to the king, more valuable than an open adherent because a 
secret spy, who betrayed the cause of the rebels, while pretending to 
fight under its colors, in the uniform of an American OflSccr of the 
army of George Washington ! 

Such appears to have been the character of General Joseph Reed, from 
documents decidedly authentic — so authentic as to have led to their 
partial destruction, by his vain and silly descendants, who imagined 
that truth could be extinguished, while vanity was kindling a spurious 
flame to consummate an imaginery apotheosii^, for one whose actual 
deeds consigned him to the keeping of the furies and his country's 
execration. 



88 

If such men are to be allowed an enrolment on the page of fame, 
as revolutionary patriots, who achieved our independence, there is no 
merits in those who stood side by side with Washington, in the 
darkest hour of the Revolution, when dismay sat on the bravest brow 
— spurning the temptation of British bribes — bidding defiance to 
British battalions, and enduring the pangs of hunger, thirst, and 
howling blasts — naked amidst winter's snow, with earth for a pillow, 
and the canopy of heaven for a covering — treason thundering in their 
ears — rewards ofi'ered for their heads, and nothing but liberty and 
independence, with the secret assurance of heaven's succour from a 
just God, to cheer and console them — bleeding, dying, desolate. 
Shall the time-serving traitor take his position by the side of such 
men ? Shall all merit be levelled into one common mass of calcula- 
ting selfishness ? For such must be the effect, if General Joseph 
Reed is to occupy a niche of glory in the same temple with George 
Washington. But there is no moral crucible to melt down such 
deeds into a general and indiscriminate mass. Truth revolts from 
such profanation Justice spurns the contamination. Nature herself 
rises up in arms against the thought, as doing violence to all her 
holiest sympathies 5 her purest heart-throbs, her noblest aspirations. 
God himself denounces the impiety 

Having demonstrated the importance of the revelations of ''Valley 
Forge" to the truth and accuracy of history — of that history, in 
which we are all so intensely interested — as belonging to the fame of 
the fathers, and as destined for an inheritance to our children, to the 
end of time — it remains to consider how the editor of the Evening 
Journal, in giving publicity to corroborative materials for history, has 
merited that torrent of scurrility, that has been vomited upon him 
from the sympathisers in the royal cause of George the Third — who, 
even up to this day, still retain in their veins, the poison of tory 
blood ! "Valley Forge" makes no fresh charge against the tories of 
1776. He but deals in specifications of treasonable designs, common 
to every history of our Revolution, and to be found in every life of 
George Washington. If he has ventured on the daring task of commit- 
ting fabrications of letters from General Smith to Colonel , he 

has perpetrated sxipererogatory crime, for no sensible purpose — for all 
that General Smith's letters told us, we knew before, as notorious 
facts of history. For this reason, we do not believe he has com- 
mitted << forgery" — from the mere love of crime, or any other motive. 
If, then, the sympathisers in the Royal cause, are so offended by 
these letters, as to pour forth the phials of their wrath upon the edi- 
tor of this paper, it must be from some other motive than virtuous 
sensibility or wounded patriotism. But this is not all. What was the 
character — what the tendency of the letters of " Valley Forge" who 



89 

has unquestionably committed a deep injury, in maintaining his anony- 
mous character, and failing to redeem « his gage/' thrown down with 
so much defiance to Mr. Spear Smith — what, we say, was the tendency 
of his letters ? It was laudable, noble, exemplary. It was to vindi- 
cate Washington, and his co-patriots, from all suspicion of being asso- 
ciated with General Joseph Reed, the secret royalist — the wavering 
tory — all which he is known to be, on the authority of Cadwalader, 
as well as Washington himself — from all suspicion of being asso- 
ciated, we say, with Reed as a friend — a bosom, and confidental 
friend. Their direct tendency is, to exalt the patriots of the Revo- 
lution, and to depress those English spies in the American uniform, 
who correspond in cypher, with the I'oyal commissioners, and sought 
to sell the liberties of their country, for a price, at the very crisis of 
her fate. And what reply is made to " Valley Forge ?" Do the 
parties criminated, defend their ancestor ? No. — Do they question 
the truth of history? No. — But they charge "Valley Forge," with 
fabrication. Yet, if he be guilty, does it make Reed innocent? No. 
— Then why not defend themselves ? 

VALLEY FORGE. 

Octoher, 31s<, 
We give anuther communication to-day, from the writer of the 
articles under this signature. We are satisfied that Valley Forge is 
what he represents himself to be — that he is sincere, honest, and 
will, as soon as circumstances will permit, establish the authenticity 
of every document he has furnished for publication. We shall re- 
frain from pushing our searches any further, for the purpose of dis- 
covering the person of Valley Forge, for the good reason that we are 
satisfied that we know him already. On comparing the note of the 
14th inst., to us, written evidently by Valley Forge himself, but in a 
disguised hand, with a letter of a recent date, in the natural hand- 
writing of the person who we believe assumes that name, there are 
innumerable evidences that most clearly establish his identity, satis- 
factorily to us. 

A word to our enemies now. Let them go on and pour forth their 
malice, give full vent to their venom, and pile obloquy, mountain 
high ; we regard it as the idle wind, that passeth by and harmeth 
not. We have long been accustomed to be traduced and slandered. 
For making the exposition of the mal-appropriation of the money of 
the Bank of the Oalted States, by Mr. Biddle, the first that was 
ever made, we brought down on our head the whole weight of the 
power of that institution and its legions of friends and supporters. 
We were charged with having perjured ourselves in that matter. 



90 

And what has become of that charge now ? No one believes it. We 
have triumphed over all the allegations made against us in the 
matter, and thousands of individuals are left to weep now, because 
they did not believe, and act on our testimony at the time it was 
given. 

So in the present case, we are charged with publishing forged 
letters, and even with forging them ourselves. But on what 
authority ? Why, on the assertion of Mr. John Spear Smith, of 
Baltimore, made, we do not doubt, in all sincerity, but evidently 
hastily, and without giving a single reason for his coming to that 
conclusion. 

We do not entertain a single apprehenson but that in this case, 
every thing will very soon come out right, and that we shall triumph 
over our enemies and their slanders, as we did in the affair of the 
Bank of the United States. Mous Verrons. 









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